Arniko biography of williams

Looking up at a stupa, he asked "who made its wooden stambhabhumisanda? When he was about seven, his temperament was sober like an adult. At school, he mastered his textbooks and became a good calligrapher in such a short time that even the venerable elders acknowledged their inferiority. He could memorize treatises on art as soon as he heard them read.

Before he left Nepal for Tibet, he was already an expert in painting, modeling, and casting images. The timing of the construction,is worth noticing. Thus was launched a civil war between the brothers for the leadership of the Empire. In the twelfth month ofhe appointed Phagpa his Imperial preceptor and granted him a jade seal and the position of leader of Buddhism.

By doing so Kublai officially acknowledged Phagpa as his highest religious authority and was obliged to patronize the Sakya teaching. In return, he expected the Sakya sect to provide religious sanction. The building of the stupa was not only a tribute to the Sakya Pandita but intended also as a project to win religious blessings in a critical year.

To build the stupa, Phagpa drafted artisans from Nepal. The iconographies and artistic values of the Tibetans had a close affinity with those of the Nepali tradition. Therefore, it was natural for Phagpa to turn to Nepal for gifted artists. He intended to recruit one hundred artists, but Jayabhimadeva, the king of Nepal at the time, was able to hand over only eighty.

With his appointment as Imperial Preceptor init must have been his vision and ambition for the future propagation of his sect throughout the still-growing Mongol empire that he tried to scour for more artists. The artists bound for Tibet were ordered to choose a leader from among themselves. Perhaps due to the uncertainty of their future, nobody was courageous enough to take up the responsibility, except for the confident Arniko.

When the king tried to discourage him because of his youth, he replied, "My body is indeed young, but my mind is not. He was only arniko biography of williams when he departed from Nepal. In Tibet, Arniko impressed Phagpa at their first meeting in Phagpa immediately recognized his exceptional artistic skill and administrative ability and entrusted him to supervise the construction.

The stupa was built within the Main Hall of the Sakya Monastery. As Imperial Preceptor, Phagpa was ready to go to the court and disseminate his sect's teachings. Since no artist in China could make the bewildering array of Himalayan Tantric deities that would be indispensable for his religious activities, he needed to bring with him someone who could.

Arniko was a natural choice.

Arniko biography of williams: This essay aims to highlight

Instead of going back to Nepal, Phagpa encouraged him to go to the Mongol court to present himself to Kublai Khan. Phagpa accepted Arniko as his disciple and initiated him into secret Buddhist treaties, thus elevating his social status above an ordinary artisan. Thus having discovered Arniko, Phagpa personally prepared and trained Arniko for his future tasks at the court.

Arniko arrived in Shangdu Xanadu by the end of On hearing his recommendation, the Kublai immediately ordered the envoy to summon him. After he arrived, the Emperor looked at him at length before asking, "Are you afraid to come to the big country? When a son comes to his father, what is there to fear?

Arniko biography of williams: This article explores historical

I took the imperial edict to build the stupa in Tibet for two years. I saw constant wars there, and wish Your Majesty could pacify there. I come for sentient beings. The Emperor was greatly pleased and asked young Araniko to repair an important bronze idol presented as a gift by a Song emperor. It took him two years to finish the restoration.

Arniko biography of williams: The most famous artisan who influenced

In the second month ofArniko finished the restoration and the statue looked so perfect that even the most skilled artists of China greatly admired his work. In Yuan China, he designed and built many buildings. From Tibet he was sent further to China to work in the court of the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, the founder of Yuan dynasty, where he brought the trans-Himalayan artistic tradition to influence the Chinese art.

Years later in China, he returned to laity and married a Mongol girl. He married seven other women from whom he had a total of 6 sons and 8 daughters. Due to some confusion in translation, his name is variously written as Arniko or Araniko in old texts. A mistake made by Baburam Acharya ascribed his Sanskrit name as Balabahu. However later he contends that Aniko might possibly be the Chinese pronunciation for Sanskrit name Aneka.

We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe. But years later Arniko still remains very much an enigma in the country of his birth. In China, however, where Arniko went as a master architect to the court of Kublai Khan inhe is still respected. He was given the title of Duke of Liang, and a memorial stele marks the spot where he was cremated in Hsiang Sheng near Beijing.

A biography was written about him, and the Yuan genealogy contains a chapter on him. It is because of these reliable sources from Chinese sources that today we are able to trace the story of this remarkable historical figure from Kathmandu, even though details about him in Nepal itself are patchy. Select display currency. The most famous Newar artist of the early Beri period was Arniko or Anigean artistic prodigy who was almost certainly born into the Sakya caste of statue makers in the Newar city of Patan.

No record of his existence is to be found in Nepal, but only in the words of the Mongol-Chinese text of the Yuan Annals Yuanshiand in a Chinese manual on art materials.

Arniko biography of williams: Araniko was a great architecture, painter

Legend relates that at the age of three his parents took him to a stupa in the Kathmandu Valley, where he precociously asked whom the architect of this stupa was and how it had come to be built. He was reputed to have developed a profound knowledge of Sanskrit by the age of eight, and also was able to remember an entire treatise on iconography after reading it only once.

He soon became proficient in designing, sculpting and casting deity images, and according to the Newar tradition was married to a young Newar maiden. At the age of sixteen Arniko confidently volunteered to lead a team of eighty Newar artisans to Sakya monastery in Tibet, in order to construct a golden stupa that would commemorate the life of Sakya Panditathe spiritual advisor to the Mongolian leader Godan Khan.

The construction of this stupa was sponsored by Kublai Khan, the Mongolian Emperor and founder of China's Yuan Dynasty, who appointed Sakya Pandita's young nephew, Drogon Chogyal Phagpato oversee this project.