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The sacred colors of the Tibetan Buddhism

The sacred colors of the Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is an elaborated religion, with its brightly colored extravagant artwork and rituals. All of the colors used in Tibetan art and its rituals hold specific meanings. Then, what are the meanings of different colors in Tibetan Buddhism. 

There are five foremost colors that are known as pancha-varna in Sanskrit, which means The Five Pure Lights, according to Religion Facts. Each color represents a state of mind, a celestial Buddha, a body part, a part of the mantra word “Hum” or a natural element.

The five sacred colors of the Vajrayana Buddhism

• Blue - Is associated with purity and healing. Akshobhya is the Buddha of this color. Air is the element that accompanies this color. It is believed, when meditating on this color, anger can be transformed into wisdom. Blue represents tranquility, ascension, the infinite, purity, and healing. Over all, the color represents wisdom. 

• White - Is the color of learning and knowledge in Buddhism. White is representative of the principles of purity, but it is also considered the color of knowledge and longevity. White It is represented by the Buddha Vairocana and It is consider a color of extremes, associated with the cold of snow and the smelting of metal. 

• Red - Is symbolizes life-force, preservation, fire, and sacred things or places. Also riddled with duality, fire can represent warmth and comfort, but can also be a destructive force. Red is associated with the Buddha Amitabha and is depicted with a red body in Tibetan artwork. Fire is the natural element complementary to the color red. In Buddhism, meditating on the color red transforms the delusion of attachment into the wisdom of discernment. Throughout Tibetan culture, red is a marker of sacred areas, and a true mark of a Buddhist scared area are the simplistic, tall gates at the entrances. We also see this color on the garments on the monks. It is believed to be a protective color.

• Green - Denotes youth, vigor, action (Karma), and harmony. Because it is the color at the middle of the spectrum, is the color of balance and harmony. Green is associated with the Buddha Amoghasiddhi. Green represents nature. Meditate on this color to transform jealousy into the wisdom of accomplishment.

• Yellow - symbolizes rootedness and renunciation. Buddha Ratnasambhava is associated with yellow. Earth is the element that accompanies the color yellow. Yellow transforms pride into the wisdom of sameness when visualized in meditation. It symbolizes renunciation and desirelessness. Yellow is the color that possesses the highest symbolic quality because of the saffron color of the monks' robes. 

These five pure lights are often seen in Mandala and Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags and mani stones at mountaintop which you can see everywhere in Tibet. The colors may vary, but there is always a set of five.

The standard Buddhist flag

The first five stripes of the flag are of five colors. The sixth color is a conglomeration of the five, but for the design, it has been separated into its constituent colors. The colonel's flag later came to symbolize the unity of Buddhists. Thereafter, it has been used worldwide and has been used in nearly 60 countries during Buddhist festive seasons, particularly during the Vesak celebrations. 

The standard Buddhist flag is a symbol of faith and peace was first hoisted in 1885 in Sri Lanka. It was designed in 1880 by the Colombo Committee. The five colors of the flag represent the colors of the aura emanated from the body of Buddha when he attained enlightenment.

1. Blue - Loving kindness, peace and universal compassion.
2. Yellow - The Middle Path - avoiding extremes, emptiness.
3. Red - The blessings of practice - achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and dignity.
4. White - The purity of the Dharma - leading to liberation, outside of time or space.
5. Orange - The Buddha's teachings - wisdom

The most prominent color concept in Buddhism is that of the rainbow body, which is the highest level of meditative achievement wherein the body is transformed into pure light. The rainbow body is the highest achievement other than Nirvana, which is the essential end-goal of Tibetan Buddhists. 

Since the "pure light" on the spectrum contains all colors, and is white, to possess a rainbow body means to possess all colors, and to do some means meditating on colors that embody specific teachings.

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Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

What Changed Tibet Today

What Changed Tibet Today

A journey to a mysterious Himalaya snow land and its unique Vajrayana Buddhism and the threatening culture. Tibetan culture and identity is inseparably linked to Tibetan Buddhism. 

October 1950 nearly 70 years after the invasion of China, the Chinese government has changed the iron hand, at least in public, with the silk gloves of the economical modernization. The carrot has replaced the bat, as the development could end with the Tibetans accepting the facts valid since 1951. 

The autonomous province, with estimated 3-4 million Tibetans and about four times bigger than France, has changed in the last 15 years. The mighty Potala palace, winter residence of His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama since the 17th century, has remained approximately unchanged. But Lhasa has changed.

These days, large parts of the city of Lhasa has changed rapidly and increasingly like any modern Chinese city, with hundreds of old buildings and villages knocked down to make way for new shopping malls and apartments for immigrants. 

Nowadays, the Tibetans have to adjust and adapt to a new flood of arrivals of domestic and foreign tourists, after China opened a new train route across the high altitude Tibetan Plateau, from  Xining to Lhasa in 2006.

Tibet today

Tourists flying high to ‘the roof of the world'

The Tibet region’s airports received 3.15m visitors last year and the number of tourists has grown by as much as 30 per cent each year

Tibet is rich in tradition and  Tibetans lifestyles that have changed over the generations. It is also a modern country with many urban Tibetans living busy city lives. Communications are very important for Tibetans and the use of mobile phones and the internet is extensive, including in some of the most remote parts of Tibet. 

Lhasa, the capital of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, is one of 24 famous historical and cultural cities declared by the China State Council. In recent years, Tibet's tourism has expanded rapidly, especially after the completion of Qingzang Railway.

Tourism is the new engine power tool for development in Tibet. Tibet received more than 20 million tourists for the first time in 2015, representing 190-per cent growth from five years ago. Tourism revenue reached 28.19 billion yuan (£3.42 billion) in the same year, equal to 27.5 percent of Tibet's GDP.

By 2020, estimated there will be 240 million tourists coming to Lhasa, generating 29.8 billion yuan in tourism revenue. Besides, Lhasa will become the only one International tourist, cultural city of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.  

Statistics from Lhasa's tourism Bureau

1. In 2006 -2007 Tibet received 7 million tourists, including 1 million foreigners. Tibet has generated a tourism income of 2.29 billion Chinese yuan.
2. In 2010, Tibet received 6.85 million tourists from home and abroad, generating revenues of 7.14 billion yuan, 14 percent of its total GDP.
3. In 2011 -2012 Tibet received 19 million domestic and foreign tourists.
4. In 2015 Tibet received more than 20 million domestic and foreign tourists.
5. In first half of 2016 Tibet received a record of 6.8 million tourists domestic and foreign tourists. Tourism revenue during the period increased by 32.1 percent year on year to 7 billion yuan ($1.05 billion), according to a statement issued by the regional tourism development commission. 

By 2020, there will be 240 million tourists coming to Lhasa, generating 29.8 billion yuan in tourism revenue. Besides, Lhasa will become the only one International tourist, cultural city of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

China's One Belt One Road Initiative (BRI)

Navigating a world of new opportunities through China's One Belt One Road Initiative (BRI)

Bridging the 'infrastructure gap' in Asia and beyond. The Belt and Road Initiative is expected to bridge the infrastructure gap and thus accelerate and infrastructure-driven economic growth across the Asia Pacific area and Central and Eastern Europe. 

What is Tibet and China’s 'one belt and one road initiative?

In more recent times, China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) policy – China plan to expand the reach of Chinese trade routes to Europe through a land route in Central Asia and a sea route through the Indian Ocean and around the horn of Africa – has taken center stage as a cornerstone of modern Chinese foreign policy. Access to Pakistan and Central Asia are crucial to ensure the success of these trade routes, which incidentally must start or pass through Tibet.

China’s railway expansion in Tibet. China announced plans to extend a railway line linking Tibet with the rest of the country to the borders of India, Nepal and Bhutan by 2020. China opened its 1,142 km railway line from Golmud in its Qinghai province to Tibet’s capital Lhasa in 2006. 

The 253 km Lhasa-Shigatse link, which includes 13 stations with altitudes ranging from 3,600 to 4,000 metres, is the largest investment project in the Tibet Autonomous Region in the 12th Five-Year Plan.

The Economist in June this year, published a report about over 7.5 million passengers rode the railway from Golmud to Lhasa in 2013 alone — more than the entire population of Tibet itself.  China will spend about $17.6 billion for a second rail link to northwestern Xinjiang, Uighur, its major coal production region near Tibet.

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The immovable one - Akshobhya Buddha 阿閦如来

The "Immovable One" - Akshobhya Buddha 阿閦如来

I would like to share with all something of Akshobhya Buddha. 

Yesterday, I attended an Akshobhya Buddha Puja at one of the local Tibetan Buddhist center. 

This was one of my very first and rare opportunity to be part of the activity. 

I am exceptionally blessed to be in the presence of the sacred Holy shrine of Akshobhya Buddha. 

Akshobhya Buddha is one of the five Dhyani Buddhas (wisdom Buddhas), along with Vairocana, Amitabha, Ratnasambhava, and Amoghasiddhi.

Akshobhya is usually depicted in blue color, symbolizing the color of clear water that reflects things as they are. Akshobhya symbolizes a clear mirror-like wisdom, which can transform any anger and clean stiff feelings. 

No reflection in a mirror sticks to it, and none repels it. The mirror always stands imperturbable and immutable, just as we should, whether the circumstances are favorable or unfavorable to us. 

Akshobhya is doing earth-touching gesture (Bhumisparsha mudra) with the fingertips of his right hand. This gesture suggests confidence, deep-rootedness and determination. In his left he holds Dorje on his lap. Buddha Akshobhya may be together with his consort Lochana and usually is accompanied by two elephants. 

As an elephant places its foot upon the earth with unshakeable certainty, so the Buddha Akshobhya mind reflects everything. Akshobhya Buddha symbolizes the overcoming of passions such as anger and hatred towards other beings. 

The Akshobhya Buddha originates from the blue mantra "Hum" and when he became a Buddha and reached enlightenment, his Buddha field is the Eastern paradise of Abhirati. 

In Sanskrit, Eastern paradise of Abhirati , literally means the Buddha fields of the most blissful. It is believed that those who are reborn in this realm can never fall back to lower realms of consciousness and are never to be born again. 

The Buddha Akshobhya mantra is considered an effective remedy for purifying ones negative karma and thus is very beneficial even for non-Vajrayana practitioners.

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.