TIBETAN STREET ART This paper will be examining ways ideas of Tibetan Art are being changed through the use of street art/graffiti. To do so it will give a brief overview of: street art/graffiti, Tibetan Art and Western Religious Art, as much of Tibet Art is religious in nature. Using this information it will address the question of the paper and look at any similarities between the ways Tibetans have adopted street art/graffiti and Western street art/graffiti. It will also examine the reactions of the Chinese Communist authorities not only to Tibetan Art and street art/graffiti but Tibetan culture in general. Graffiti is unsolicited markings on public or private property, the word graffiti coming from the Italian graffito, meaning ‘to scratch’. In recent years, the word graffiti has also been used to refer to a particular style of art, painted legally or not. It “…is art removed from art’s own precious arena; it inhabits the everyday world of people…is the art of the general. First and foremost its purpose is to focus the public’s sense of space. It has to be immediate, forceful”[1]. The reasons given for graffiti/street art are diverse. Banksy, probably the most well known graffitist in the world says “Although you might have to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s (graffiti) actually one of the more honest art forms available. There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on the best walls a town has to offer and nobody is put off by the price of admission.”[2] The growing interest in Tibetan sculpture and painting nowadays is clearly due as much to their religious subject matter as to their aesthetic value. The concept of Shangri-La where “Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism have long been objects of Western Fantasy”[3] because of an artificial, romanticized ideal imposed upon them by the West of some ‘pristine’, ‘untouched’, ‘pure’ land full of monks. “The painters and sculptors are often monks, and their names mean ‘depictors of deities’ (lha-‘bri-pa) or ‘makers of deities’ (lha-bzo-pa)”[4] Most Tibetan Art follows a similar pattern. A religious figure is in the middle of the picture. He is sitting with his legs crossed. The physical environment that this figure is associated with surrounds him. And outside that environment are protector deities who do exactly that, watch over the figure. At the top is the personification of nirvana, what ever that may look like. Blue was used, more sparingly, in later works. “The blue pigment was made from a costly imported mineral, lapis lazuli.”[5] Most traditional Tibetan Art is located inside temples, though recently Chinese Museums have begun displaying it and people (mainly tourists) have been able to purchase it. The earliest Christian Art appeared in the catacombs under Rome, the tombs where early Christians were forced to hide to practice their religion due to persecution. During the Middle Ages most painters were Monks and Nuns, decorating written works of the Gospels, as well as painting the insides of churches. Most surviving paintings are religious. Painting during this period followed a strict set of guidelines. This changed under the Carolingians, and was completely removed during the time the Renaissance swept Europe. Today art is focused on individual interpretations of the world. Street art/graffiti emerged in China in 1920s when it was used by Communists to fan the flames of Revolution. When they got into power, they cracked down on further street art/graffiti to water down any other flames of revolution. Most of Chinese art from the 1950's to the 1970's dealt with themes from the Communist revolution or from the daily lives of workers and peasants, due to the Communist idea that art should express the aims of (their) society. There is a section in Beijing the 798 Art Zone that ‘tolerates’ street art/graffiti, as long as it meets certain criteria, such as supporting the ruling party. In September 2007, seven 14-15 year olds were arrested in Amchok Bora, TAR for spray painting. “They paid for their candid expressions with hard labor, physical beatings and fines.”[6] The Chinese say not only have they have saved Tibetan culture and brought all Tibetan people forward towards enlightenment and progress, but they have helped expand Tibetan culture. They use the argument that before they liberated Tibet, 95% of the population were serfs and slaves, and illiteracy was also at similar levels. They use several examples to illustrate their point such as the recent publication of the cultural history of the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe County of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan to mark its 300th Anniversary. “The Labrang Monastery…is one of the six leading monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism…and another centre of the Gelug sect”[7]. He Feng, president of Qinghai University for Nationalities points to “Life of King Gesar”, the world’s longest heroic poem as proof. He says that it used to be considered ‘vagrant’ but now enjoys key support from the Central Government and Qinghai University has set up an institution specialising in the poem. Shingtsa Tenzinchodrak, a living Buddha of the Kagyu sect and a deputy of the National People’s Congress says “If there is indeed (cultural) extinction, it is the extinction of the 'traditional culture' of the feudal lords represented by the Dalai Lama”[8] Traditionally, both Western Art and Tibetan Art have been located within religious places of worship and focus on religious individuals. While Western Art has long since changed in this regard, while Tibetan Art has recently started focusing on other areas. Graffiti/street art has served to take Art out of the galleries/religious institutions of the ‘elite’ and taken it to the streets where the ‘masses’ may enjoy it. They argue that if art makes the inside of the building look good, it makes the outside look even better. Does it help change the stereotype of Tibet? Arguably not. Much of the graffiti/street art is still religious in nature, and the Western perception of graffiti/street art as a way of spreading dissent as well as art fits in well with its perception of Tibet as a peaceful male monk land. Graffiti/street art is non violent so the monks (because the perception is that only monks live there) are engaging in resistance to the Chinese via peaceful methods. This paper has examined ways in which ideas of Tibetan Art is being explored through the use of street art/graffiti. It has come to the conclusion that Tibetan Art and Western Art have a similar background in that they both began by depicting religious figures, though Western Art has since deviated from that path, and there are signs that Tibetan Art is beginning to do the same. Tibetan Art is linked and will be linked for the foreseeable future to the ideal of Shangri-La, and the use of street art/graffiti has simply reinforced that ideal to the outside world, though within Tibet itself, bringing art from the inside to the outside is quite revolutionary and will shape the way Tibetans themselves view their art for years to come.

[1] Caro, Anthony, 1993, Michelangelo and Donatello: Scale and Presence, Modern Painters, Vol. 6, No. 1 [2] Banksy 2005, Banksy - Wall and Piece, Random House Ltd., United Kingdom [3] Lopez, Donald S Jr, 1999, ‘Introduction’, Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pg 3 [4] Stein, R.A, 1972, Tibetan Civilization, Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp. 281 [5] World Book Multimedia Encyclopaedia 1999, World Book Inc., San Diego, California, USA [6] Armstrong, Alana W, 2008, Tagging for a Free Tibet, Fat Supply, http://www.fatsupply.com/2008/06/tagging-for-free-tibet/html, accessed15th March, 2009 [7] China to publish culture series on leading Tibetan Buddhism monastery, 2009, on ChinaView.cn, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/19/content_11035956.htm, accessed 19 March 2009 [8] Living Buddha: Tibetan culture well preserved, 2009, on ChinaView.com, quoting Shingtsa Tenzinchodrak, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/18/content_11032373.htm,