Each year on the 30th April is International Tibetan Calligraphy Day – བོད་ཀྱི་ཡིག་གཟུགས་དུས་ཆེན
An especially chosen date of the 30th April, because there are 30 letters of the Tibetan alphabet, with four vowels represented by the fourth month of April.
This new website is appropriately launched in celebration of International Tibetan Calligraphy Day, which advocates Tibet’s ancient writing systems of rich and varied script styles steeped in Buddha Dharma.
Tibetan Calligraphy Day was conceived in 2017 – created by Tibetans to encourage scriptural practices and heathy competition in its much needed preservation and propagation. Prior to this at a time not so long ago, Tibet’s scriptural heritage was in grave danger of being lost forever. Eradicated and suppressed since Tibet lost its independence in 1959.
It was largely due to the exiled Tibetan community in India and with other Tibetan Lamas who established Dharma centres in the West, that a thread survived.
Being a literal vehicle of Buddha Dharma, calligraphy is one of the chief sciences of Monastic study and practice. As monastic institutes and Dharma centres established and matured in both East and West, so did the practice of calligraphy regain its place, not only in Tibet with Tibetans themselves but also with a handful of Western students.
Tashi Mannox is one such student who happened to be in the right place at the right time, learning directly from the first waves of Tibetan Lamas who visited and stayed in the West. One of the early Westerners to take precepts as a monk, Tashi worked for many years as a scribe in the preservation of old and rare manuscripts.
It is this early connection and commitment that is the foundation and evident throughout Tashi’s continued artistic output as a Calligrapher and Dharma artist, gathered together here as a collection of works past and present.
