The five mandalas, created by Miya Ando, are inspired by Tibetan prayer flags and created using leaves from the Bodhi tree.
Artist Miya Ando has created a series of five mandalas to be auctioned online that will raise funds for the Tibetan Nuns Project.
According to a press release from the Tibetan Nuns Project, all proceeds from the auction will be donated by the artist to help provide food, shelter, education, and healthcare to over 700 Tibetan Buddhist nuns living at seven nunneries in northern India. Ando’s mandala series marks the third time that the artist has created a series of artworks in support of the project.
Ando created the mandalas in the colors of Tibetan prayer flags. She bleached, dyed and sewed together skeleton leaves from the Bodhi tree to create the mandalas. The Buddha is said to have obtained enlightenment beneath a Bodhi tree, making it a significant symbol in Buddhism. Prayer flags, an iconic symbol of Tibet, promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. Ando has merged these two meaningful Buddhist symbols in the creation of her mandalas.
The mandalas are on auction now, until June 9. They can be viewed, and bid on, via the auction house’s website.
Ando, a descendant of Bizen swordsmiths, was raised in both a Buddhist temple in Japan and a redwood forest in Northern California. She is now based out of New York. As Ando previously told Lion’s Roar, she was raised in a Nichiren Temple and studied the Lotus Sutra, but in the past several years has become more interested in Zen practice. Ando’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including a recent show curated by Nat Trotman, the Guggenheim museum’s curator.
More of her work can be viewed on her personal website.
