Between 2022 and 2023, I undertook my MA in Buddhist Art and Conservation at The Courtauld Institute of Art. My research during this period has focused primarily upon the sacred spaces of the region of the Anglo-Welsh border known colloquially as ‘Little Tibet,’ as well as the numinous hand-sewn robes worn by local Kagyu lamas. During this period I undertook repeated site visits to Wales and the Welsh border, where I photographed religious shrines, garments, and landscapes, and carried out interviews with local experts and practitioners. In May 2023, I went on fieldwork to Sri Lanka with the Buddhist Art postgraduate cohort, and in June I presented one of my research papers virtually at the UKABS conference in St. Andrews.
Black Hat in the Black Mountains: A sacred Tibetan Buddhist landscape in the Black Mountains region of the Anglo-Welsh border
A sacred landscape must be constantly reimagined, retold through legends and stories. Otherwise, it will be forgotten, and its blessings lost.
Ani Rigsang, Itinerant Tibetan nun
Abstract
This is an encounter with a contemporary sacred landscape on the Anglo-Welsh border, known colloquially as ‘Little Tibet’.
To the contemporary Kagyu Buddhist practitioner, Little Tibet is a subtle natural landscape, that is physically anchored by various sites, including a sacred hill with a spring, indoor and outdoor shrines, churches, cairns, and a stupa. These sites, and the local history that formed them, have not yet been researched in an academic context. They therefore comprise the main content of this paper.
This is a study of otherworlds and hidden-lands; of living heritage and local history; of ritual and memory; of low art and places of power. Ultimately, the very purpose of Buddhist practise is investigated, and landscapes emerge as paramount.
Little Tibet is built from memory, its identity is numinous and complex. It belongs to a timeless tradition of religious practice in nature, for ‘a sacred landscape must be constantly reimagined, retold through legends and stories. Otherwise, it will be forgotten, and its blessings lost.’
Chapter 1 – Marking a Spot
Chapter 2 – Little Tibet: Borderland, Otherworld, Hidden Place
Chapter 3 – The Black Hat in the Black Mountains
Chapter 4 – Karmapa-Land
Chapter 5 – The Vajra Tent
Chapter 6 – Karma Dechen Choling
Chapter 7 – The Well of St. Issui
Chapter 8 – Conclusion
Fragments of Sacred Raiment: The Numinous Garments of Lama Shenpen
Most often the clothing that transforms, whether instantly bestowed or painstakingly crafted, is an expression of love and of connection.’
Carole Scott
Abstract
This paper explores the life and legacy of Lama Shenpen Hookham (b. 1946, Essex, England) through two of her sacred Buddhist garments: ‘the nun’s pouch’ and ‘Khenpo Rinpoche’s robes’.
Textiles are here related to on the practitioner’s terms; as a manifestation of the spiritual and emotional connection (Tibetan: tendrel) between Buddhist teacher and student, at once relative and absolute. In terms of methodology, this paper belongs to the material turn of religious studies, and also to sacred waste and the recycled object as tulku. It also offers a unique take on the object biography genre, by using the past, present, and future lifetimes of the object to construct the personal. Material culture and Buddhist philosophy are integrated, in the intention that they undergo a mutual deepening. A spotlight is also given to the living heritage of a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist lineage in the United Kingdom.
Practitioner Aesthetics: A study of a domestic Kagyu Buddhist shrine in the Black Mountains region of the Anglo-Welsh border
Extract
Daphne’s personal shrine room is located on the lower floor of her cottage, in the basement space. Entering the building, descension is required. This downward movement feels symbolic, as if into the timeless womb of the building. I am reminded of the notion of tathāgatagarbha, or Buddha-nature, which means ‘the womb or essence of those who have gone (to suchness)’. The shrine room is a practical space, in which the practitioner, through meditation and ritual, develops their own embryonic Buddha-nature. Perhaps then, it is a symbol of this idea: Buddha-nature made physical.
The walls of the shrine room are stone and give the sense of the subterranean, evoking an image of distant meditation caves and underground shrines. Wooden beams support the ceiling, and a fire is burning. Daphne invites us to sit with her, gesturing to piles of meditation cushions on the floor. She takes us through a guided meditation, invoking Padmasambhava, the eighth century Tantric master who converted Tibet to Buddhism.
Embodied dharma: The intangible oral expressions of Tibetan Buddhism in a contemporary heritage context
There is such a thing as unconditional expression that does not come from self or other. It manifests out of nowhere like mushrooms in a meadow, like hailstones, like thundershowers.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Abstract
The UNESCO World Heritage listings give an indication of the aspects of cultural heritage that exist in the conservation zeitgeist. This paper explores whether the fundamental oral expressions of Tibetan Buddhism have been, or can be, given proper representation within UNESCO’s system. First, a backdrop is provided of the adoption of the World Heritage Contention (1972) and the Intangible Heritage Convention (2013). This is followed by an analysis of UNESCO’s interior workings, scholarly responses to the Conventions, and a brief survey of the items of Tibetan Buddhism that have so far qualified for listing. Then, oral expression and transmission are introduced and explored, as the fundamental lifeblood and animating substance of Tibetan Buddhist practice. Finally, it is acknowledged that accurate representation of Tibetan Buddhism’s living heritage requires looking beyond UNESCO, towards an inclusive and embodied bottom-up approach.
Fieldwork
Visiting Lama Shenpen and her collection of Buddhist robes at The Hermitage of the Awakened Heart in North Wales, March 2023.
Examining cave paintings in Sri Lanka with The Courtauld Institute of Art’s postgraduate Buddhist Art cohort and local wall painting conservation teams, May 2023.
On fieldwork in Little Tibet with Tibetan Buddhist calligrapher and former Kagyu monk Tashi Mannox, June 2023.
Exploring Karmapa-Land in the Black Mountains, July 2023.
The well-shrine of St. Issui, Black Mountains, July 2023.
Map created of Little Tibet for MA thesis, highlighting springs, prehistoric cairns, churches, shrines, stupas, Karmapa-Land, and the Vajra Tent, September 2023.