Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost’s new documentary Creating Buddhas: The Making and Meaning of Fabric Thangkas is the story of the Western thangka-maker Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo. This film explores her discovery of fabric thangka, her apprenticeship in Dharmasala, India, the step-by-step by process of producing a fabric thangka, and the history and spiritual importance of the thangkas in Tibetan Buddhism. Through this film, we see Rinchen-Wongmo produce a fabric thangka of the female Buddha Tara and we see how, in a sense, she is like Tara. She became a master of a male-dominated tradition and she gives us a feminine perspective on that tradition.
