Tantric transformations

Visiting Bangkok for a new publication project, Robert Beer could not feel more at ease. Asia, rather than his hometown of Oxford, England proves more inspiring as his spiritual base. As an author and artist who shuns western artistic traditions in favour of the geometric yet flat Tibetan religious iconography, Beer has devoted the past 40 years to studying Tibetan Buddhist art. He has discovered an inner calm through drawing, painting and writing about Tibetan deities and other Buddhist symbols.

Beer is the author and illustrator of standard works like "The Encyclopaedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs", "Tibetan Buddhist Goddess Altars" and "The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols". His drawings and paintings are found in the private collections of Western Buddhists and Tibetan art lovers. And nothing makes him happier than ensuring a small renaissance of the Newar art - in the form of thangka painting - from Nepal's Kathmandu Valley, a region caught between Tibetan and Indian religious traditions.

Beer must be credited for his tireless efforts to preserve and promote the once-declining Newar art, and 500 of the best Newar, or thangka, paintings from his private collection and commissions will grace his ambitious next book.

"Now in shops in Nepal, you'll see more thangka art, when 10 years ago it had almost disappeared,'' says Beer.

Beer's soft-spoken manner has perhaps to do with his years of spiritual refinement, reflected in his clean, symmetrical drawings of deities that are rare in facial expression but rich in inner calm and symbolism.

Beer was drawn to religious and mythical symbolism during his school years, a period that spawned a series of complicated images of mythological figures illustrating his poetry classes.

"I had a sister who died when I was 14, making me want to understand why people live and die, to find the meaning of life. In the West, nobody could come up with the answer. So my mind turned towards eastern traditions, Hinduism and Buddhism,'' he says.

Despite being a gifted draftsman, Beer is colour-blind, and this impediment cut short his dream of going to art college. "I've never studied art with Western scholars. My knowledge in art was basically self-taught.''

Beer studied Tibetan art in the 1970s, spending five years in India and Nepal with Tibetan masters like Jampa-La, the Sherpa painter Gomchen Oleshey and the eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche. His experience with these masters was both spiritually rewarding and intellectually stimulating.

"Like most Westerners who become involved in Tibetan art, I found it very difficult," he says.

He adds that the time-consuming process of becoming intuitively aware of the Tibetan tradition itself was as complicated as interpreting symbols and translating Tibetan texts. He admits it took 12 years to really begin to understand the tantric traditions. "As you work on a drawing, you would think 'why she is wearing this?' Then through that, you begin to understand Buddhist concepts because they are encapsulated in the images: why the deities have six arms, four arms, eight arms…'' 

The result of such a strenuous apprenticeship was a gradual spiritual process of self-discovery through Buddhist concepts - slowly understanding by way of intuition and confirmation.

Being an artist proved of great use in the process. Art encapsulates the philosophy, he says, and Tibetan art exhibits Buddhist teachings. And practising Tibetan traditions provides him with a huge body of knowledge that an artist like him can absorb.

Every Tibetan artist also needs to show respect to what is usually considered sacred art by subjecting his name to anonymity.

"In the West, it's all about the figures of the martyrs, whereas in Buddhist art, the artist is anonymous essentially.

"If you lose this need for individual expression, you'll become more open to a tradition itself. So it's more a process of evolving, and it's very humbling in a sense because you lose the self-importance of being a famous artist, a famous writer. So the evolution is essentially becoming part of the tradition itself, losing that need to become an artist, to understand, to be a personality,'' he says.

The reason that Tibetan art attaches great importance to anonymity has to do with the fact that paintings are not seen as great masterpieces, but "a by-product of the experience".

"It's like getting some refined substance. The process is more important to me." 

He adds that, as an artist, he doesn't care about being famous.

One can almost feel that Beer's art is devotional, as if driven by his disillusion with western art, especially its "dealership mentality" which, in his own words, is concerned with the actual value of things in terms of age or material. He's particularly mystified by the way academics become excited at some 15th-century works of art that he says are "not that good, but just old".

"For me they are just paintings. I see the work of the artist not through its age, or its material value, or its rarity. Like Picasso said, there's no such thing as ancient or modern art, there's only good art or bad art."

Like the artist himself, the Newar art of Nepal is devotional and powerful. Through the presence of the deities with their different attributes and expressions, one can transform.

"If you have an angry nature, then you will have some wrathful deity to transform that energy into personal power. If you are ignorant, you can use a wisdom deity to transform ignorance into wisdom, compassion, power,'' he explains.

In Nepal and Tibet, Beer's drawings are mainly used as models for reproductions, in effect reviving the art form. Some are featured on packages of tea, incense and other products and postcards. Perhaps the popularity of his works is due to his introduction of modern techniques like the shading and pigments that help add depth to the otherwise flat Newar style.

His goal is to promote Newar art and develop the Newar people as artists, which is the reason for his annual visits to the Kathmandu Valley. Ultimately he's hoping to exhibit their paintings in New York or Bangkok.

"I visit them every year on my friend's motorbike. This gives me joy; I didn't waste my life. What I've done has some value in the world."

 Robert Beer's next book on Newar art will be published by Serindia Publications.

Manote Tripathi

The Nation