Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

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Mr. G
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Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Post by Mr. G »

I received a very nice thangka of White Mahakala from a very good friend. He even had it specially framed, and I believe just the framing itself cost a good deal of money (possibly around $300). My friend doesn't know much about Tibetan Buddhism, and took the thangka solely to be a piece of art. I know I'm not supposed to hang up thangkas in my apartment like it's just a piece of art, but I also would not like to offend my friend. Thoughts?
  • How foolish you are,
    grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention!
    - Vasubandhu
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conebeckham
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Post by conebeckham »

Hang it up!

Treat it with respect, maybe arrange a small table underneath it with some flowers, or something....doesn't have to be too elaborate, you know.

That's my opinion!
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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heart
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Post by heart »

Mr. G wrote:I received a very nice thangka of White Mahakala from a very good friend. He even had it specially framed, and I believe just the framing itself cost a good deal of money (possibly around $300). My friend doesn't know much about Tibetan Buddhism, and took the thangka solely to be a piece of art. I know I'm not supposed to hang up thangkas in my apartment like it's just a piece of art, but I also would not like to offend my friend. Thoughts?
White Mahakala, that is very auspicious! Have it consecrated by a qualified lama and put it up.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
Malcolm
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Post by Malcolm »

Mr. G wrote:I received a very nice thangka of White Mahakala from a very good friend. He even had it specially framed, and I believe just the framing itself cost a good deal of money (possibly around $300). My friend doesn't know much about Tibetan Buddhism, and took the thangka solely to be a piece of art. I know I'm not supposed to hang up thangkas in my apartment like it's just a piece of art, but I also would not like to offend my friend. Thoughts?

Hang it up.
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Mr. G
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Post by Mr. G »

Thank you all!

White Mahakala was the first empowerment I ever received, and it was from Luding Khen Rinpoche. :smile:
  • How foolish you are,
    grasping the letter of the text and ignoring its intention!
    - Vasubandhu
deepbluehum
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Post by deepbluehum »

Hang it with the 8 offerings.
ngodrup
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Re: Can I Hang Up A Thangka Received as a Gift?

Post by ngodrup »

And put a khatags over it.
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