Li Gotami Govinda

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Li Gotami with Lama Govinda and Nyanaponika (around 1970)

Li Gotami Govinda , originally Ratti Petit (born April 22, 1906 in Bombay , † August 18, 1988 there ) was an Indian painter, photographer, author and composer.

Life and activity

Li Gotami was born and raised a Parsin . She received extensive artistic training in India and Europe which included painting, photography, music and dance.

She studied painting at the University of Shantiniketan, whose founder Rabindranath Tagore influenced her work and worldview significantly. At the university she met Lama Anagarika Govinda , who taught there, introduced her to Buddhist philosophy and whom she married in 1947. Anagarika Govinda initiated Li Gotami into the order Arya Maitreya Mandala , which he founded in 1933, and was subsequently involved in its leadership until her death.

Li Gotami went on expeditions to central and western Tibet with Lama Govinda in 1947/48. These included the exploration of the ruins of Tsaparang, the former residence of the kings of Western Tibet ( Guge ). The expeditions were funded by the Illustrated Weekley of India and the Times of India . Back then, Li Gotami made numerous breaks from temple frescoes in Tsaparang. Her photos from Tibet from 1947/48 are considered to be one of the last significant photographic documentations of life there before the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the later destruction during the Cultural Revolution.

From 1955, Li Gotami lived with Anagarika Govinda in seclusion in Almora in northwestern India, where they engaged in painting, Buddhist studies and meditation. From India they went on several lecture tours in the 1960s and 1970s that took them around the world. After Li Gotami fell ill with Parkinson's disease and Anagarika Govinda suffered several strokes, they moved from India to California for health reasons. Until Anagarika Govinda's death in 1985, Li Gotami lived with him in Mill Valley near San Francisco . Then she returned to her Indian homeland, where she died three years after her husband at the age of 82.

Many of her artistic works and fresco copies from Tibet are exhibited in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya , the former Prince of Wales Museum, in Mumbai .

Li Gotami founded the Lama and Li Gotami Govinda Foundation based in Munich, which carries out and promotes projects in the interests of her and her husband.

Works

  • Tibet in Pictures. Berkeley 1979, Vol. 1 ISBN 0913546577 , Vol. 2 ISBN 0913546585
  • Tibetan Fantasies: Paintings, Poems, and Music. Emeryville, Cailf. 1976, ISBN 0913546488
  • The legendary wreath of the life of the Buddha. Munich 1997

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Birgit Zotz : On the European perception of phenomena of possession and oracle priesthood in Tibet. Vienna 2010, p. 75.
  2. ↑ For a detailed description of the expedition see Lama Anagarika Govinda: The Path of the White Clouds. Zurich 1969
  3. ^ Li Gotami Govinda: Tibet in Pictures. Berkeley 1979; Vol. 1, ISBN 0913546577 ; Vol. 2, ISBN 0913546585
  4. ↑ Birgit Zotz: On the European perception of phenomena of possession and oracle priesthood in Tibet. Vienna 2010, pp. 75–76
  5. ↑ Lama and Li Gotami Govinda Foundation: Biography of Li Gotami
personal data
SURNAME Govinda, Li Gotami
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petit, Ratti
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian painter, photographer, writer and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Bombay
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1988
Place of death Bombay