"THE PILGRIMAGE"(Master Series)

101,5 x 152 cm.(Triptych).
Mixed media on on wood panel (Mountain Ahorn).

With this triptych I tried to condense the experiences of a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in a single painting.
Different impressions along the path, starting from Simikot in Nepal, and finishing with Mount Kailash, are captured in this one picture.

The whole landscape here, especially in Tibet, is permeated with a vibrant shamanistic and religiousatmosphere. Mountains, rocks, caves, rivers, lakes... all are filled or inhabited with power and meaning.
Prayers, mani stones and engravings of Buddha emanations can be found around every corner. I tried to evoke this unique quality by blending prayer texts, gods, saints and symbols in the painted landscape.

The composition can be overlaid with a geometric `matrix´,
which shows the journey as a path through seven steps, related to the different chacras.

Seen like this, the third eye point (ajna chacra), overcoming duality, is situated in between the two lakes Mansarovar and Rakshas Tal. The circles which make up the construction of Mount Kailash,meet in the point on the path where the heart chacra (Anahata chacra) is located.

The path leading up to -and finally indeed becoming- the inner kora, brings us from the sixth to the ultimate seventh step (Sahasrara chacra), symbolised by Mount Kailash itself.

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enlarged detailed view of this work