Calligraphy
Ngak’chang Rinpoche composing calligraphy
This photograph was taken at the Chapter Art
Centre in Canton – Cardiff in 1987 when Ngak’chang Rinpoche was requested to
give a demonstration and exhibition of Tibetan calligraphies. Rinpoche has often
been asked to give classes in calligraphy but he has always maintained that
there is nothing to teach – as there is no tradition of spontaneous calligraphy
in Tibet as there was in China and Japan. Ngak’chang Rinpoche comments:
It was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who first adapted the style of Zen
calligraphy to the Tibetan alphabet, and he developed a style around it in terms
of the practise of the A-shé stroke (A shad) the single stroke calligraphy which
exposes the mind of the calligrapher. Although there is no tradition of
spontaneous calligraphy in Tibetan or the Trans-Himalayan regions, various
Lamas—such as Tai Situ Rinpoche—have taken it up. Each Lama has an individual
approach and a tradition does not seem to have emerged yet. It may never emerge
– and I am certainly not inclined to think of what I do as something worthy of
being evolved into a tradition. I merely enjoy producing calligraphies simply
because people seem to like them and because art in various forms has been part
of my life since childhood.
