Paintings of the Mystic Feminine

This week my wonderfully talented friend Soyolmaa is having a solo exhibition of her collected painting work at the Xanadu Art Gallery in Ulaanbaatar. I attended the opening, and she graciously allowed me to come in later to photograph her work to share with all of you. I also want to encourage UB denizens to see the show before it closes on April 12th.

Soyolmaa, longtime readers may recall, is the painter Palzang and I commissioned to create a thangka of Guru Rinpoche in union with his primary Indian consort, Lhacham Mandarava. We presented it to Jetsunma and she was so taken with it, she had it hung just behind her teaching throne.

Soyolmaa pursued a standard art education through much of the 90’s, with her work showing a preoccupation with images of the feminine form and emotional life. When her life as a devoted Buddhist practitioner bloomed in the early aughties, her work shifted gears, imbuing her feminine themes with a mysticism derived from the higher practices of Vajrayana Buddhism.

This exhibit is directly tied to this blog’s namesake, Danzan Ravjaa. Seems that in the early 1830’s, far from his usual Gobi haunts, Ravjaa founded a nunnery outside of Ulaanbaatar (Urga, as it was known then) just for female meditators. It was called Baldan Khajid Ling, which has been given the somewhat fanciful translation of “Glorious Hermitage of the Flying Yoginis.”

There is now a group of women, under the spiritual tutelage of Soyolmaa’s older sister, Khajidmaa, whose ambition is to revive Baldan Khajid Ling, which had produced great female saints in the past. The structures have been destroyed, but the practice lineages survived deep underground during the Communist years.

They now have a lovely piece of land, and all of the artwork in the exhibit is for sale, with the proceeds dedicated to rebuilding this women’s hermitage.

Now to the artwork! I’ve just extracted the later, Buddhism-inspired pieces, and I’ll present them in the order that they appear in the exhibit. Sorry that many are at an angle. Had to do that to eliminate flash glare.

This first one is a rendering from old sources of how the hermitage once looked, with their muse, Vajrayogini, hovering overhead:

This next shows White Tara surrounded by a joyful flock of dakinis rejoicing at the newly-built temple:

Next is a female Bodhisattva. I love the little imps in the tree, and of course the Ruddy Shelducks, which the Mongols call “Lama Birds,” frolicking in the water!

Then a powerful, yet serene piece depicting cave-dwelling yoginis in their nighttime devotions under the watchful protection of Vajrayogini:

This is followed by a quirky, lovely painting of Tibet’s greatest hermit, Milarepa, meeting a female devotee, perhaps his sister:

And a whimsical work that I love, and from which the exhibition gets its name, City of Gandharas:

One then confronts a powerful piece with an unusual theme – a female practitioner engaged in the practice called “Lujing” in Mongolia, and “Chöd” in Tibet. This is the practice popularized by Tibet’s great female saint Machig Labdron and which remains pervasive in Mongolia today:

Finally we see three exquisite thangkas. The first is an embellished replica of a self-portrait done by Danzan Ravjaa himself, which was used on the cover of Michael Kohn’s Lama of the Gobi. Glenn Mullin owns this and he said he was going to give it to me. Let’s see if he can really part with it:

This is followed by a gorgeous Green Tara…

…and, last but certainly not least, a fascinating depiction of Ra Lotsawa, about whom I knew very little until today:

The Xanadu Gallery is just south of the MobiCom building, near the walking mall west of the Zanabazar Art Museum.

If there are any of you who don’t happen to be in Ulaanbaatar, but want to inquire about purchasing any of the paintings you see here, drop me an email and I can be a liaison to Soyolmaa.

Comments

[Jae-Min]

Isn't Ra Lotsawa one of the lineage holders of Yamantaka during the trasmission to Tibet? If so, didn't he also kill many bodhisattvas as there was a practise of transferring the consciousness to another body? I think he tried to kill Milarepa because of this but Milarepa would not fall into the fire and eventually agreed not to transmit that teaching. I myself would like to know more about Ra Lotsawa. The paintings are amazing as well, especially the chod one.

[Konchog]

Jae-Min: that's the gist of what I heard about Ra Lotsawa too, though I don't know the details, either. I tried to find a bio online to link to, but couldn't. He's also the India-Tibet bridge for one of the Kalachakra lineages. Apparently, also, there is a site in the Kathmandu Valley where he did extensive retreat with great accomplishment.

[Palzang]

My first reaction at seeing the "City of the Gandharas" was, "Well, there's a horse of a different color!" All I can say is "Wow!" Soyolmaa is wonderful!

[rho1640]

WOW while the symbolism may be lost on me the beauty of the work isn't. What incredible talent your friend has. Thank you and thank her for sharing it with us.

[Carol in Honolulu]

Glorious colors and beautiful artwork. Thanks for the opportunity to see her work. Aloha!

[sarah]

Guess which one I love the very most! She's awesome.

[Konchog]

OK, here's Sarah: "Hey! I want to live in a technicolor land filled with horsey-headed people!"

In an interesting development, my friends Erka and Sharavdorj visited the exhibition, bought four paintings and commissioned a fifth! Their motivation was to help restore the women's hermitage of Danzan Ravjaa. I love those guys.

Soyolmaa does thangka commissions, by the way. Email me to enquire.