Sand picture
Sand pictures are pictures made of colored sand , which are mostly used in symbolic acts, prayers or healing ceremonies. The best known are those of the Tibetans and Native Americans.
American natives
The North American sand pictures or sandpaintings are symbolic pictures that are tied to certain ceremonies and are originally 'painted' from pulverized red, yellow and white sandstone and ground charcoal on a light sandy and smoothed floor. These paintings can be 30 cm, but also up to 5 meters in diameter. The picture must be created in one day and destroyed again on the same day. During a healing ceremony, a ritual with chants that lasts up to several days, a number of such sand pictures can be created and then deleted. The person to be treated is placed in a sand picture during the ceremony.
The Navajo , who originally took sand pictures from the Pueblo Indians and developed them further, know up to a thousand sand pictures associated with corresponding ceremonies. Almost half of them are documented with images and several are on display in the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe ( New Mexico ).
History of the sand paintings
Since about 1890, the first sand screen motifs (Engl. As so-called ceremonial carpets woven in the form of Navajo weavers ceremonial rugs ) spread. For the next 50 years, some of the motifs were recorded by ethnologists, but also by Navajos, at most with watercolors or colored pencils as a souvenir. One of the first, if not the first at all, was the Navajo medicine man Fred Stevens, Jr. (1922–1983), also known as Gray Squirrel , who around 1949 fixed sandpaintings with glue on wooden boards. This was viewed by some healers as wrong, while others saw it not only as a good way to get some money, but also used this technique, knowing that a lot is lost, to create notice boards. However, errors were intentionally incorporated into the fixed images so that the original power of the images was only preserved for the healing ceremonies.
In the Navajo beliefs, disease can originate in many different ways. In any case, a disharmony has arisen, which must be brought back into harmony by means of song and ritual. The sand pictures are sprinkled on the floor of the ceremonial site, usually a hogan , with color powder obtained from nature. Five main colors are used: black, white, red, ocher and turquoise, which simultaneously symbolize the five cardinal points including the center. In general, the Navajo sand pictures have a complex symbolism that is related to mythology .
Tibet
In Tibetan Buddhism , detailed sand mandalas are created. These are ritually destroyed again in order to symbolize the transience of being. First, the outline for the mandala is drawn with a pencil. Then, with a sand-filled metal tube, powder-fine, colored sand is scattered along the drawn lines. Looking at a mandala is said to counteract the three poisons of the mind, greed, hatred and delusion, but above all it is used to support meditation. In a final ritual, the sand mandala is swept up and collected in a vessel. The colorful sand is then poured into flowing water or given to the wind.
Moving sand pictures
A newer type of sand pictures is made from oil, various mixtures of sand and air. The materials are enclosed in a narrow gap between two glass plates.
The gravity causes the sand to trickle to the ground; this movement is slowed down or prevented by the air bubbles rising in the water. Turning the image will restart this process. The use of different colored sands always results in new patterns that are reminiscent of landscapes.
Floor profiles (lacquer profiles)
The term sand picture is also used for natural soil profiles from sand and gravel pits, which in their structure and variety of colors are often reminiscent of abstract paintings. Around 1930, scientists developed a method that allowed layers of loose material to be solidified with a suitable varnish, to be detached from the natural composite in an undisturbed state, to be fixed on wooden panels and to be permanently preserved as a varnish .
See also
literature
- James C. Faris: The Nightway . Univ. of New Mexico. Universitypress Albuquerque 1990
- Donald Sander: So may evil leave me in droves. A Psychological Study of Navajo Healing Rituals . Translated from the English by Dieter Kuhaupt. Walter-Verlag, Solothurn and Düsseldorf 1994
- Leland C. Wyman: Southwest Indian Drypainting . Univ. of New Mexico. Universitypress Albuquerque 1983
- Paul G. Zolbrod: On the way of the rainbow. The book of the origin of the Navajos . From the American by Jochen Eggert. Diederichs, Munich 1988; Pp. 385-389
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paul G. Zolbrod. On the way of the rainbow . P. 385
- ↑ Donald Sandner. So may evil leave me in droves . Walter publishing house. P. 83
- ↑ Mechthild Klein: Fine sand, deep meaning. Deutschlandfunk , June 23, 2016, accessed June 16, 2017 .
