Excellent Tibetan Mantra Calligraphy

Tashi Mannox recently dropped me a line, and I am very happy to direct people to his mantra calligraphy website: www.tashimannox.co.uk. His work is of a very high standard as you can see (right). He is fluent in many styles of Tibetan script, and also designs seals.

He also designs tattoos and has a second website devoted to this: Inkessential.

Title: Mani Mantra, Chinese Ink on paper. Size: 71x54cm
(this work is for sale, contact Tashi via his website)

Bonji Tattoo

This image was sent in today by Jose. He asks "is it a name or is it a listing of different Gods?" I thought it was interesting enough to answer at length.

This is two seed-syllables, or perhaps three depending on how you read it. The top bit is hāmmāṃ - the seed syllable of Fudō Myōō (Acala Vidyārāja). It is written as one syllable, but if you consult the Shingon Buddhist International Fudō webpage you will see that the mantra of Fudō is:

namaḥ samanta-vajrāṇāṃ caṇḍa mahāroṣaṇa sphoṭaya hūṃ traṭ hāṃ māṃ

hāmmāṃ is a combination of hāṃ + māṃ but written, as I say, as one syllable.

At the bottom is the short a syllable. It is in contact with the hāmmāṃ but must be a separate syllable. A is of course the mother of all syllables, and the syllable of Vairocana. John Stevens describes Fudō as an "incarnation and messenger of Vairocana" so it makes sense to have the two syllables together.

A fascinating case. I don't have a page for Fudō but perhaps will add one in the future. One of our order, and a friend of mine, is named Acala.