The Nation, one of Thailand’s premier English-language publications, wrote in an article dated 22 Febrary 2009 that the Second Annual Chaing Mai Gay Pride Celebration, an event planned by MPlus, a Chiang Mai-based NGO, in conjunction with dozens of other Thai and international organizations, was called off due to “threats of violence.” Indeed, this past Sunday, a group of red-shirt protestors calling themselves "Rak Chiang Mai 51" took advantage of the gay pride celebrations as an opportunity to create chaos, destabilize the current government, and flex their political muscle; latching onto a legitimate celebration monitored by over 40 Thai and international NGO’s in order to create a political subterfuge against the current governing coalition, to which Mplus has no connection. What began as a petition to “save Lanna culture” in the face of a “gay invasion” became a protest which the Thai police were hesitant to shut down, and which eventually shut down the entire parade itself. One might ask: Why do I mention this political anecdote on a blog usually devoted to purely artistic matters? Because the Canvas Art Program just happened to be right in the middle of it.
First of all, back to the beginning. Last Wednesday, the CAP volunteers met a diverse group of participants brought together by Mplus in Suan Prung park to collaborate on a “community mandala” that would allow all of us—participants and facilitators alike—to express our individual thoughts about “pride” within the prism of a larger geometric design. We engaged critical questions about our inner selves, sexual identities, and social realities through the selection of colors, patterns and symbols, crafting a visual statement of queer reality that was both healing and chaotic.
After we had completed our individual mandalas (and after a brief and very sweaty video interview for Thai PBS) we gathered in a circle to share our works, opening up our own “circles of support” to the larger circle of the group. After awhile, we began seeing mandalas in everything, and it soon became evident that what we were creating was not merely a visual mandala; it was also a human mandala. We were doing more than just creating art: We were getting to know each other.
The final result of this workshop, a vibrant, 16-section “Pride Mandala,” was featured as part of a community art exhibition at the Tawan Center, the destination point of the Pride parade. A large geometric design made up of sixteen individual expressions of “pride,” the Pride Mandala unites the individual with the collective, the microcosm with the macrocosm; offering both a critique of the establishment’s inability to accept LGBTQ voices into socio-political discourse and an opportunity to open up a common visual space in which all viewers—gay and straight, red shirt and yellow shirt, young and old—can come together without prejudice or mistrust. The mandala, by boldly re-interpreting a traditional Buddhist symbol in the context of a charged political debate about “traditional culture,” presents a focused statement of political resistance, arguing that all Thais—both gay and straight—have a stake in the preservation and enjoyment of traditional Thai, Lanna, and Buddhist cultural traditions.
The mandala is among the most ancient forms of Buddhist art, and has a long and rich visual history stretching back to the genesis of representational art. From rock carvings, stylized lotus blossoms, and “sacred circles” demarcating early Stupas and other Buddhist structures, the mandala has developed into a potent unifying symbol for the Buddhist world. Here in Chiang Mai, for example, architectural space remains cloaked in the language of mandalas; the chedi, as an expression of the Buddhist cosmos, is actually a Buddhist mandala rendered in three dimensions rather than in two. Mandalas reflect both an ancient view of an enchanted cosmos and a more contemporary view of quantum reality, one which accepts that that which we refer to as “reality” is actually a holographic construction, and that the true structure of reality is circular rather than linear. This concept—as powerful as it is simple—has found a voice in nearly all of the world’s spiritual traditions, perhaps most profoundly in the spiritual traditions of the Amerindian peoples of North America.Such a connection to the artistic traditions of North America is fitting, since this work is also part of a project aimed at broadening the horizons of cross-cultural dialogue in America. In the coming months, the Pride Mandala will be featured as part of an exhibition at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire (USA), allowing its message of inclusion, tolerance, and mutual respect to reach literally across the globe. The exhibition, entitled “Cultural Canvas: Building Community Through the Arts,” will present the mandala alongside creative works culled from a broad swath of Chiang Mai society—from Burmese migrant children to single mothers—and will hopefully, in the process, help to raise awareness amongst educated people in America of the struggles faced by many here in Chiang Mai. As the ancient wisdom of the mandala suggests, we are all part of the same circles—circles of life, support, and community—and we must recognize and celebrate these circles if we are ever to create a truly “human” community.
As Pongthorn Chanlearn, the founder of MPlus, wrote in a recent editorial in the Nation, “It is simply untrue that local cultures are completely distinct and separate from other cultures, as no cultures exist in a vacuum.” Indeed, the mandala, as a common Buddhist symbol, symbolizes this nuanced view of culture and community. The concept of symmetrical, centrally arranged space demarcating different “realms” of cosmic reality and interior space unites Lanna culture—typified by Chiang Mai’s hundreds of soaring golden chedis –with broader currents in Buddhist thought. By blocking visual access to the mandala, the red shirt protestors thus also partitioned and diminished Lanna culture, hiding it behind a veil of ignorance and cultural stagnation. For what does it mean to consider “Lanna culture” in relation to “Pattaya culture,” or even “Thai culture” in today’s rapidly globalizing and shrinking world? Today, the only way to “preserve” a culture is to enter it into a dialogue with another culture; to trust “culture” to the natural and humanizing processes of discourse, inquiry, curiosity, and change. As Pongthorn Chanlearn writes, “A flowing current brings fertility from upstream to downstream and prevents the decay that comes with stagnation. Likewise, culture, without being held hostage, renews itself in time and nourishes subsequent ages. This is true of all cultures, as they withstand the passage of time and pass on the legacy of previous generations.” (The Nation, 5 February 2009)
This weekend, true Lanna culture was held hostage, barricaded both within the fences of a shopping mall and within the confines of a narrow and restrictive cultural mindset. When I began the process of planning this "community mandala" workshop for MPlus, I could not have forseen that the mandala itself would figure as an actor, however silent, in a lived drama of social resistance. In a way, the mandala, though it may not have reached the largest possible audience, did assume the role of "common space" in this dialogue, if indeed there was any to be found. The Rak Chiang Mai 51 may have torn down the stage, locked demonstrators inside of a temple for hours, and blocked access to the artistic heart of the day’s activities; however, in all of the chaos surrounding the day, they failed to tear down the one visual statement directly criticizing them. They may have succeeded in "protecting Lanna culture" from a gay invasion of Pattaya-esque proportions, but they have failed to silence the cries of resistance and empowerment echoing out from Chiang Mai’s gay community, just as they could not silence the Pride Mandala. When I leave Chiang Mai in (sadly) just under a week, the Pride Mandala will be following me, making its way to America as part of a small exhibition at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, carrying MPlus' message of inclusion literally across the globe.
If you’d like to read more about the current political situation in Chiang Mai, feel free to visit this link: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/02/22/national/national_30096290.php~Jon Lohse, CAP Volunteer
