Aesthetics and Artistry: Comparing a 19th Century Thangka Painting to a 21st Century Video Game

Anshuman Arya
Feb 13, 2024
1 min read

by Anshuman Arya 15993

AD1112 SAE OXFORD

WORD COUNT : 3800

25 March 2013

Associating Indo Tibetan Thangka Artwork with the videogame Journey, as examples of resonant ideologies used to perpetrate a unique, meditative understanding of existence.

How echoes of balance and emotional resonance within our existence, and paradigms of ascension, can be heard across various cultures and through multiple platforms, typified by a Thangka Artwork depicting the “Wheel of existence”, and the videogame experience of Journey.

Introduction

A crushing urge to find resonance, in cultures across the globe, in cross connected human thoughts and ideas, that drive towards discovering a unified theory of everything, so to speak, has been one ever expanding interdisciplinary human endeavour, which is nebulous and profoundly confusing in nature, as we must accept that there are so many variables in laws governing our beings, yet undefined.

It is evident, though, how human creativity and productivity has helped shape various cultures with their distinctive yet parallel perceptions of the universe and interpretations of life. It Seems important to read into all of what various cultures have to offer in terms of knowledge that was known to help attain a higher state of mind, as there lie several clues into our being within ourselves.

Art may be interwoven with many forms of beliefs, ranging from highly descriptive religious or spiritual to vague representations of life or personal experience, all of them with their own message or story, often open to interpretation, and thus helping form deeper connections with the piece.

Symbolism in art, not the late nineteenth century Art movement perse, but the essence of symbolism as “action in favour of spirituality, the imagination, and dreams.” has been a part of many religious rituals and practices for ages.

Great minds influencing the symbolist era, like Schopenhauer and Nicolas Roerich, were themselves highly influenced by ancient eastern philosophies and were pioneers in bringing them to the west. In his own work, Schopenhauer maintained,

"Truth was recognized by the sages of India"

(Schopenhauer,1969)

“Schopenhauer believed that what distinguished aesthetic experiences from other experiences is that contemplation of the object of aesthetic appreciation temporarily allowed his subjects a respite from the strife of desire, and allowed the subject to enter a realm of purely mental enjoyment, the world purely as representation or mental image. The more a person's mind is concerned with the world's representation, the less it feels the suffering of the world as will.”

(Balakian, 1967)

"Schopenhauer…regards art as the only means of temporarily escaping the fundamentally futile nature of reality. Arts Essential Role is…to enable us to escape what we already intuitively know about the irredeemable nature of what we are."

(Bowie, 2003)

Nicholas Roerich, a great artist, social activist and advocator of world peace, was a keen believer in symbols especially the one that represented holy trinity in and across various cultures all over the world.

It can be interpreted as the holy trinity of past, present and future bound by the ring of eternity or as religion, art and knowledge in the ring of culture.

He believed that some variation of this symbol had existed for millennia throughout various cultures, especially Buddhist Cultures, and in Notes on the Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace, he stated,

“The Symbol Was Not A Mere Decorating Ornament all over, it bore a very special meaning. Collecting all its images together, we might prove that it is the most extensively spread and ancient one among all the symbols of mankind. No one can claim that it belongs but to one religion or is based on only one folklore. It would be very beneficial to glance at the evolution of human consciousness in its variegated forms.”

Deriving from these ideas of spiritual transformation, aesthetic experiences and symbolism, this essay will look to analyse the following pieces of work, as two, contrasting in agency yet similar in capacity, channels of knowledge and empowerment.

Indo Tibetan Thangka art, more specifically one depicting the “Wheel of Existence” from circa 1800s scrolls, depicting highly detailed and intricate artwork and scriptures. The content of Thankas can range from stories with morals, to depicting lives of deities, and other teachings of the Buddha.

The Purpose of Thankas is mostly meditative guidance and they are used as an “object of aesthetic appreciation” during rituals, as Schopenhauer stated.

Journey, a video game released in 2012 on the PlayStation Network, garnered much appreciation and acclaim for its simplistic yet emotionally charged gameplay.

Unlike most videogames on the mainstream market, this one was really different from rest in what seemed an enchantingly absorbing gameplay environment surrounded by a deeply complex concept folded into merely 3 hours of immersive gameplay top to bottom.

The gameplay experience as described by many players, comes close to a deeper understanding of self, due to the games innovative design and as (Sheffield, 2013) puts it

“Journey is one of those rare games that targets an emotional experience and actually hits it.”

Journey | Exploring the Medium & Mechanics

“The opposite of play is not work. It's Depression.”

(Sutton Smith,2001)

In her thought provoking book, Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal (2011) brings up really interesting facts and corollaries surrounding human understanding of play, our emotional capacities involved in gameplay and how gameplay, when addressed with an open mind, can bring about positive changes in a player attitude towards life in general.

She brings forth the clinical definition of depression as being a combination of “a pessimistic sense of inadequacy” and “a despondent lack of activity” and counters that a game is an opportunity to focus our energy with relentless optimism and fully activate all of the neurological and physiological systems that underlie happiness – our attention systems, our reward centres, our motivation systems, our emotion and memory centres, thereby making games the opposite of depression.

Anyone who has played the game chess or followed a team sport, as a supporter, knows what it feels like to accomplish a goal, and that is the concept of fiero, the most primal emotional rush we feel when we triumph over adversity. (McGonigal,2011)

In his 1975 study, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety which elucidated upon optimal human experience, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, focused on a specific kind of happiness that he termed simply, flow and defined it as

“the satisfying, exhilarating feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning.”

He raised attention to the fact that a lack of flow in everyday life makes people remorseful and depressed and the exact opposite behaviour is observed when people are engaged in gameplay.

“Games are an obvious source of flow,” he wrote, “and play is the flow experience par excellence.”

(Csíkszentmihályi,1975)

McGonigal succinctly outlines the four essential traits of a game as: a goal, rules, a feedback system and voluntary participation.

A goal provides the player with a sense of purpose, a specific outcome set for the player to strive towards.
The rules place limitations and therefore foster creative and strategic thinking to reach the goal.
A feedback system reassures the player that the goal is attainable and motivates and guides the player.
Finally, voluntary participation requires everyone playing to form common ground about the rules, goals and the feedback, especially important in impartial multiplayer scenarios. (McGonigal,2011,p.21)

So flow and fiero, and these four traits of a game, are essential to the success of a game in terms of formulating a cohesive and immersive gameplay experience and offering the players a sense of positive emotional engagement with the game.

In a later section, we will come back to these traits and analyse their significance from a meditative standpoint in Thanka art, but first we must explore the game Journey. thatgamecompany creative director, Jenova Chen, conceptualised the game after critically acclaimed design success of his previous games Flow and Flower, that carried the ethos of a new emerging form of interactive media.

In the same interview with Edge Online, Chen stated that their main goal is

“to achieve a particular emotional experience. The feeling is the most important thing, but we don't necessarily know what gameplay mechanics will enhance that feeling.”

This philosophy of starting out a concept with an emotional essence and then working out game mechanics to provide that experience, has been tried before in games like Quantic Dreams Heavy Rain, although its narrative depth (and the techniques employed as narrative tools) is on opposite sides of game design spectrum when compared with Journey. (McDevitt, 2013)

You play as a robed figure, with one goal that is shown over the horizon from the very beginning – the symbolic glowing mountain. You must control the figure through the mesmerising and hauntingly vast desert environment, spotted with ruined architecture, overcoming obstacles and simple puzzles to advance further until you reach the goal.

Now, the special thing about Journey, and what sets it apart from most contemporary titles on the market, is it's fantastically simple and intuitive game mechanics. Game mechanics are of core importance in translating a game developer's idea coherently into an experience that a player would enjoy and cherish.

Mechanics define the ease and comfort of player control which, according to McDevitt(2013),is termed as the Agency mechanics and is paralleled magnificently throughout this game with Destiny mechanics.

What McDevitt suggests is that games are purely interactive media and there can be two ways to progress in the game. One is through the players' efforts, by learning new skills, levelling up and reaching short term targets, by their own Agency.

On the other hand, cut scenes and narrative driven elements are destined to go on as the game is designed and the player has to go through them anyway.

Journey begins with focus on our shrouded figure sitting cross legged in the sand, as if in meditation, and upon onscreen cues to move the control sideways until the mountain comes into view, you are awakened from this state into activity.

It's a fairly simple use of the analog stick to move, using the axis control of the PlayStation 3 controller to navigate your direction and pressing X To Jump. With the first jump, you can instantly feel lightness in your character, a sort of floating feeling, with billowing garment and fluttering scarf, as you land gently on the sand, it instantly changes your perception of gravity.

Collecting hidden glyphs elongates your magical scarf, letting you stay aloft a second or two longer. And that is in a way, very liberating aspect of the game that challenges your notion of being tied down to things. From the very first instance, invoking a sense of new found freedom, the game helps the player form a deeper connection with this simple yet significant flourish each time you jump. (Killingsworth,J.2012)

Revisiting a familiar emotional passage, Chen, addressed the philosophy of the narrative of the game in an online interview, that apart from the concept of that follows the model of John Campbell's monomyth or a hero's journey, which is largely based upon the three tier construct of Departure, Initiation and Return, which Chen cites as an influence. (OHannessian, 2012)

Apart from this main story arc, complemented by an ancient civilization

story that guides it, there is also the story arc of how the player evolves while experiencing the game. This arc follows, and what is quintessential to this paper, the life arc of a human being.

The game world evolves and presents itself, with its emotionally arousing, harsh, forlorn yet beautiful environments and fluid gameplay aspects.

In an interview with co.create, Chen sums up this arc, saying that this was the final layer over the philosophy of the monomyth to form the narrative of the story.

“I think when we were arranging the world, we were trying to create an arc that mimicked the different stages of life. You are born into the world not knowing everything; everything is fresh and new. You can fall and roll down and it doesn't hurt. Everything Is very safe. And then a teenager is risk taking and adventurous and fun, exhilarating.

In the middle of life you are a little bit lost, you don't see the light from the mountain. You are rediscovering yourself, focusing yourself. Eventually you find your direction and you walk toward, the responsibility and the trials of adulthood. You go through all the difficulties and in the end you get to transcend. That Is the story we talked about.”

(OHannessian,2012)

Within the game narrative, as mentioned earlier, lies another ancient wisdom imparting epic, which the player experiences periodically. This is representative of stages of stages of enlightenment in a hero's journey, where his path lies ahead of him and he has epiphanies on realising his goal.

These epiphanies happen in the form of a “holy ghost” visiting the player during meditative cut scenes and showing the player his path, through iconographic information in a pictorial manner really similar to the ideology Thanka art follows.

This epic is this shrouded character's Journey, the one you take with him, but you end up on your own.

Levi Z Strauss argued that the transformations of healing involve a symbolic mapping of bodily experience onto a metaphoric space representing myth and ritual. The narrative structure of the ritual then carries the participants into a new representational space, and with this movement, transforms their bodily experience and social position.

Dow built on Levi Z Strauss account to suggest that symbolic healing involves mapping a personal problem onto a collective mythic world through emotionally charged symbols. The emotion evoked by the symbols then ensures that manipulating the symbols within that mythic world will lead to corresponding transformations of patient illness. (Kirmayer,2004)

The game's most novel innovation, perhaps designed as a keen and curious social experiment on interaction between anonymous online players in co-operative gameplay, without the use of any language or script. On that note, the author would like to point out that there is absolutely no use of any discernible language or script at all throughout the game and the game mechanics are based on following intuitive visual and sonic clues in the vast environment.

The only way to communicate with the world around you, is by pressing the “O” button on the controller which makes the character chirp out processed musical notes in random order for each press. This functions as an “activate/redeem” function button as well. In cooperative gameplay, which is designed such that one randomly selected online player will be added or removed from your world at any moment.

You can share a journey with this anonymous person who joins you in real time as you progress and you learn the depth of this being, being there when they suddenly vanish and leave you feeling betrayed, or being there throughout the journey till the final steps into bright oblivion.

The beauty of cooperative play in this game is unparalleled; as there is no motive behind the other player's goals other than interacting with the only “person” in the barren lands and trying to form a connection with them in an entirely new realm in real time. It's a very primaeval feeling.

And the designers promote this aspect by giving both the players ability to charge each other's scarves, when in close proximity, which aids them to jump and glide longer and further.

The non verbal nature of the positive and symbiotic experience initiates a nonverbal philosophical understanding of other areas of life. The simplistic notion encompassing this multiplayer concept and corresponding game mechanics is that it has tuned down the distractions and made it really directed and focused.

This vast emptiness gives the player a sense of awe. This is actually counterintuitive to what meditation suggests, that you clear your mind free of distractions. Here, the game environment does that for you. As the game progresses, a change of pace, setting and anticipation forms the basis of comparison of the game with the “wheel of existence”.

Thangka: Discovering Synergy in Everything

A Thangka is a layered composite form of painting which consists of a silk panel with embroidered and hand-painted depictions of Buddhist deities, teachings, mandalas, or pictorial stories. A textile is mounted around it to secure it, which is then laid with a cover, usually silk. It can additionally have adornments such as leather corners and panel wood and wooden dowels and decorations.

There are other six forms of Thangka as well, which do not employ fabrics and canvas. (Loh, 2001) Thangka making is a flourishing of collaborative spirit from multiple art forms like painting, embroidery, stitching, textile production, Sericulture, inks, leatherwork, gold, and precious stone mining and such industries and is usually all done under the supervision of a high monk.

The art has been traditionally passed down generation to generation by monks at Buddhist monasteries (Gompas) in valleys of Kathmandu in Nepal, where the practice is said to have originated. (Shaftel, A., 1993)

“Art may also be entwined with the propagation of teachings, encompassing a spiritual message beyond the artistic form and design. The thangka is one such sacred art. The very act of its creation is a form of meditation. The artists do not consider themselves creators but produce thangkas as a mission, an act of worship. Art not for art’s sake, but for a deep spiritual purpose.”

(Loh, 2001)

Thangka making was regarded as an agency to purify the mind and improve the human condition. For this reason and also, being a collective and combined effort of various skilled artificers and not just the vision and translation of one mind, most Thangka works remain anonymous.

This anonymity adds a sense of intrigue towards the work as being part of a higher collective consciousness that has been passed down to the monks and inspires students of Buddhism to preserve and protect this sacred art form. (Mehra, 1970; Shaftel, 1993; Unesco, 1975).

Specific cultural context gives an object cultural importance and significance. The purpose of a Thangka, in its historical essence, is its use as a visual aid in meditation as it is considered to be rich in religious and cultural values. It’s as if it is a reciprocation to the artist’s act of worship in producing the sacred art. (Loh, 2001, p. 4)

A Thangka is rich in deeper meaning with detailed descriptive narratives in the form of iconographic and pictorial constructs, as it is meant to serve the purpose of functional art. In style and technique used, a Thangka is a derivative of Indian cloth paintings (patas) for ritual use by storytellers.

Following exact canonical rule, which provides an authenticity to understanding Tibetan religion, the painting style is inspired by Central Asian, Nepali, and Kashmiri art while the landscapes can be likened to those found in Chinese scrolls. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1983)

The canonical rules assign strict dimensions and proportions to the canvas and the template line drawing, which passes down the pure spiritual value and efficacy of the Thangka. The template's various areas are filled up with different pieces of silk and textiles, making them distinctly coloured and symbolic.

The outlines are defined by fine stitching work employing leather, yak/horse tail hair intertwined with gold and silk threads, along precisely drawn lines. The complete picture is then framed and mounted in a silk brocade which alludes its own specific symbolism. (Wongmo, 1999) Each part contributes to a specific meaning in the whole assembly.

As seen in a lot of Buddhist art, a dominant theme in Thangka art as well is its geometric nature. The following things can be inferred after observing various Thangkas is that, one, the body parts of subjects, the various ritual elements and symbols are skillfully and knowingly arranged in a systematic grid of angles and intersecting lines to depict a variety of scenarios and two, each of these positions in space and all of the symbols that recur are associated with a specific metaphysical meaning which takes years of study to understand in depth.

The process of choosing these elements seems quite methodical and in fact, Lipton and Ragnubs clarify this in "Treasures of Tibetan Art":

“Tibetan art exemplifies the nirmanakaya, the physical body of Buddha, and also the qualities of the Buddha, perhaps in the form of a deity. Art objects, therefore, must follow rules specified in the Buddhist scriptures regarding proportions, shape, colour, stance, hand positions, and attributes in order to personify correctly the Buddha or Deities.”

(Lipton Ragnubs, 1996)

Thangka, being an explicitly religious art, follows strict guidelines from the Buddhist scriptures, and all artists must be properly trained and have in-depth knowledge, background, and understanding of the art form to create a Thangka with accurate symbolism and appropriate allusions.

Bhavacakra: The Wheel of Existence

The author was lucky enough to be able to visit Ladakh, in the Himalayas, in the summer of 2011 and visited more than a dozen monasteries in the valleys and deserts, and was always taken to this one symbol, this wheel, of some variation or another, to the left of the monastery doors.

He was told there that it was the Bhavacakra and it depicted in the simplest terms, the Buddhist philosophy of life so that every layperson that would come up to the monastery could gain some insight from the visit, even if they were uninformed.

This simplified deduction of the wheel’s symbolic meanings is a strong common theme in most depictions of the “wheel of samsara”, as it is ceremoniously called.

The piece chosen for the purpose of this essay is one that is from circa 1800, now situated in the Birmingham Museum of Art in the United States that originates from Eastern Tibet. It is a special type of richly embroidered and appliqued Thanka, which gives it more durability, fine detail, lustre, and longevity.

It is not possible for the scope of this essay to go in-depth into the Bhavacakra, as it is too vast an explanation on its own, but in order to associate it with Journey this essay will briefly summarise its essential features.

Essentially, At the centre of everything is the root of all evil, and surrounding it, in the next level are paths that can be chosen in order to either go into the heavenly realms of the hellish realms and are governed by the laws of karma, which in turn shuffles people into the symbolic six worlds bifurcated into three higher realms and three lower realms. Ringu Tulku states:

“We create karma in three different ways, through actions that are positive, negative, or neutral. When we feel kindness and love and with this attitude do good things, which are beneficial to both others and ourselves, this is positive action. When we commit harmful deeds out of equally harmful intentions, this is negative action. Finally, when our motivation is indifferent and our deeds are neither harmful nor beneficial, this is neutral action. The results we experience will accord with the quality of our actions.”

Coming Full Circle

"I look at game design, sculpture, theatre, and architecture and those are all reasons why humans are awesome. Music is not an example of why we are awesome. It’s an example of our curious nature. Unlike every single art form, we discovered music. We are reorganising the naturally occurring world of acoustical physics. I like the definition of music as ‘organised sound’. Because of its primal nature, music seems to be magically empowered to communicate information in a way no other art form seems able to do.”

- Austin Wintory (Hall, L. 2013)

Levitin (2006) in his seminal work, This is your Brain on Music, establishes that for millennia, music has been an integral part of community and culture. It is almost impossible therefore, to not try and experiment with the aesthetics of nonlinear procedural audio in designing the sonic elements and musical motifs, which is an industry no older than 20 years in catering to video game music.

The game was designed around some thematic elements that form a core of the overall game experience, Composer Austin Wintory used these musical themes, and reverse engineered them into a soundtrack album that was a first ever nomination for a video game music album at the Grammies in 2013. (Hall, L. 2013)

In this same interview Wintory claims that the process of making the sounds for the game was a unique experience as Chen’s game design and Wintory’s musical genius which complement each aspect of game mechanic from Agency to Destiny, kept pushing each other to go back and forth and perfect their parts of the project over a course of three years.

This can be likened to the way Thangka art was developed in a collaborative workflow, the artists trying their best in making the experience of viewing their respective work of art as emotionally charged as possible.

Wintory uploaded a YouTube video with the full score and a text commentary about his process of making this score and one point that exemplifies, in my opinion, the aesthetics of this work and is relevant to prior information provided in the essay, is the initial sequence when you jump for the first time.

This scene employs the beginning of the track, The Call, where Wintory starts off with a C flute and Cello. This then builds up into an orchestral crescendo really quick and drops to silence and then revives as a bass flute solo with sporadic percussive elements. (Wintory, A. 2013)

He explains he used this ploy to wipe the emotional palette of the player clean, before the experience began. This converges and translates so well with the opening visual sequence, inviting the player to a fresh new world.

Our final conclusive point would be how Journey as a video game can be portrayed as a transcendental experience, comparable to meditation involving the use of Thangkas.

We established how the dynamic and vast game environments in Journey, parallel with the emotional environments of clarity, freedom, and peace envisioned or pursued during meditation and during the course of life.

The immersive soundscapes combined with finely rendered flowing sand that changes colors as the mood of the narrative progresses, changing the general theme of the game from warm and organic to cold and mechanical and then back again to the heights of bright rapture with ascension and freedom from the wheel of existence.

Similarly, the factors governing gameplay somewhat govern and affect meditation and draw parallels with Buddhist philosophy. The goal of meditation is regarded in general as a way of self-fulfillment, emotional resonance, and healing, to get to which, we must follow a set of strict, self-critical rules that require high levels of self-discipline to perform devotedly.

If we elucidate just the flow hypothesis, various parallels such as increased focus, concentration, and awareness; getting immediate feedback for your actions; disappearance of self-consciousness/ego, the grand feeling of being connected to something larger than self, can be drawn between both cases.

Upon reflection, unlike the Buddhist scriptures, that suggest a more strict form of meditation with higher authority controlling these sacred learning vehicles, the developers have left that authoritative aspect of indoctrination aside in Journey and as McDevitt says in his paper over arguments of Agency vs. Destiny,

“'…by avoiding a concrete authorial stance, the designers of Journey have put their faith in the hands of their players. They are just as curious to see what happens as we are. And in my view, it is this curiosity about ourselves and others that deserves our fullest attention.”

(McDevitt, 2013)

Bibliography

1. Alexander, L. 2012. Journeys' composer finds a game's soul through his music. [Online]. Gamasutra. Available from: [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/183051/Journeys_composer_finds_a_games_soul_through_his_music.php](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/183051/Journeys_composer_finds_a_games_soul_through_his_music.php) [Accessed: 22.3.2013]

2. Balakian, A. 1977. The Symbolist Movement: a critical appraisal. New York University Press, Ch. 2.

3. Birmingham Museum of Art. Wheel of Existence, circa 1800, Eastern Tibet. Available from: [http://www.artsbma.org/collectionitemdetails?searchword=wheel%20of%20existence&showform=0&ordering=popular&searchphrase=any&areas[0]=portfolio&areas[]=portfolio&searchlayout=details&limit=1&start=1](http://www.artsbma.org/collectionitemdetails?searchword=wheel%20of%20existence&showform=0&ordering=popular&searchphrase=any&areas[0]=portfolio&areas[]=portfolio&searchlayout=details&limit=1&start=1)

4. Bowie, A. 2003. Aesthetics and Subjectivity. Manchester University Press, Ch. 8, p. 262.

5. Csíkszentmihályi, M. 1975. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

6. Csíkszentmihályi, M. 1991. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Perennial, New York.

7. Csíkszentmihályi, M. 1989. Optimal Experience in Work and Leisure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, pp. 56(5): 815-822.

8. Edge Staff. 2012. Jenova Chen on Journey's philosophy. [Online]. Edge Online. Available from: [http://www.edge-online.com/features/jenova-chen-interview/](http://www.edge-online.com/features/jenova-chen-interview/) [Accessed: 19.3.2013]

9. Epstein, M. 2004. Thoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective. Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

10. Hall, L. 2013. Journey’s composer on storytelling through music. [Online]. Edge Online. Available from: [http://www.edge-online.com/features/journeys-composer-on-storytelling-through-music/](http://www.edge-online.com/features/journeys-composer-on-storytelling-through-music/) [Accessed: 22.3.2013]

Aesthetics and Artistry: Comparing a 19th Century Thangka Painting to a 21st Century Video Game

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