Dasha-Nima - Blessed Sun
статья по английскому языку (8, 9, 10, 11 класс) по теме

Blessed Sun

Buryatia is a one of the most beautiful and glorious places on the territory of the Russian Federation. There are few people who know about Buryatia, but everyone knows about famous Baikal – the deepest freshwater lake in the world. The Buryat people have been living here for many centuries and have preserved their own national culture.

Ballet dancers Larisa Sakhyanova, Peter Abasheev, singers Lkhasaran Linkhovoin, Kim Bazarsadaev, Dugar Dashiev are well-known not only in our country, but abroad. The literature of the Buryat people is represented by such famous writers and playwrights as Khottza Namsaraev, Dashi-Rabdan Batozhabai, Namzhil Baldano, Isai Kalashnikov.

There are a lot of outstanding painters, architects, sculptors and builders who are popular with their great works. We can name the names of Tsyrenzhap Sampilov, Innokenti Daduev, Roman Merdygeev, Alexander Khangalov.

The names of the young masters are also well known: Albina Dorzhieva, Zhamso Radnaev, Valentin Bazarov, Zorigto Dorzhiev, (painters), Dmitry Budazhabe, (sculptor), Bairma Dambieva, Rimma Dorzheva (masters of tapestry).

They are all known as “darkhans” which mean “masters”.

One of the most popular and acknowledged masters of modern Buryat art is Dashi Namdakov.

Dashi Namdakov is a Buryat sculptor, graphic artist and jeweller.

Dashi Namdakov was born in 1967 in a small Siberian village Ukurik near Chita, which is close to the Russian-Chinese border. His full name Dashi-Nima which means Blessed Sun, has led to the top of the world’s Art.

He graduated from the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Fine Arts in 1990.

Dashi’s first solo show in the VP Sukachyov Art Museum in Irkutsk (in 2000) became a sensation in the art world. The flawless plasticity and jeweller’s precision of his works have soon won the author the reputation of a leading Russian sculptor. A year later he became a member of the Russian Union of Artist.

His works draw on the ancient culture and artistic styles of the Eurasian steppes and on Buddhist and shamanic mythology. His mysterious figures of warriors, princesses, bulls and imaginary creatures create a world of imagery that is powerful yet intricately detailed, conveying an ancient spirituality.

“My concept of beauty took shape during my now distant childhood when, as children, we used to sit around the bonfire in the steppes and look at the bottomless black skies with shimmering tars above our heads ... it’s the harmony, the single law of universe,” says Namdakov. Maurizio Vanni describes the nomads’ conception of everlasting laws of transformation, death and miraculous revival as sacred processes of shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism: “There are living beings that transform themselves into animals, others that change into plants or flowers ... there are statues that become animated and people that become statues or stones. Hence the feeling of a universe in perpetual alteration.”

Namdakov’s sculpture is really strongly influenced by the legacies of the ancient Asian nomadic empire and the Middle Ages, from the Iron Age art of Scythians, Sarmatians and Hunnu of the first millennium BC to Mongolian works of the tenth to thirteenth centuries AD. The imagery of warriors, horses and bulls and their attributes – helmets, saddles and twisted horns – echo their ancestral sources. His materials draw on Buryat crafts, for as well as sculpting in bronze, silver, gold and copper Namdakov employs wood, mammoth tusk, leather, horsehair and precious stones. Working equally comfortably on a monumental scale and in miniature, he makes sculptures that recall the intimacy and decorated intricacy of heirloom jewellery.

In 2003 Dashi was awarded a silver medal of the Russian Academy of Arts for the works exhibited in Moscow.

Despite a cultural taboo, Namdakov has addressed the subject of Genghis Khan, sculpting the great Mongolian leader in bronze (2003, 2011) and acting as art director in the film “Mongol” (2007), for which he received Russia’s Nika Award for Best Art Direction.

Moreover in 2012 Halcyon Gallery unveiled “Genghis Khan”, a monumental sculpture by Dashi Namdakov, in the center of London.

The spectacular bronze statue rises to almost five metres from hoof to helmet and features the great Mongolian leader descending from heaven on horseback. “Genghis Khan” is placed next to Cumberland Gate, Marble Arch, against a beautiful backdrop of green parkland and open skies.

Dashi Namdakov’s solo exhibitions in major Russian museums and abroad won him a universal acclaim: the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, Tibet House U.S., the Beijing World Art Museum, the Guangzhou Museum of Art, the Kasteyev National Art Museum in Kazakhstan, etc.

The Master’s works can be found in the collections of the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the State Museum of Oriental Arts, the Russian Contemporary Art Museum in Moscow, Tibet House, NYC, the Guangzhou Museum of Art in China, etc, as well as in private collections of the Russian President V. Putin, former Tatarstan President M. Shaimiev, former Mayor of Moscow Y. Luzhkov, Head of the Chukotsky Autonomous District R. Abramovich, etc., in private collections the USA, Germany, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, China and Taiwan, Singapore.

One of his latest prizes awarded to Dashi Namdakov is the XXIII “Pietrasanta e la Versilia nel mondo” Prize. The prize is given out each year for creative excellence, but also for the artist’s role as ambassador of the artistic traditions of Pietrasanta to the world.

Dashi Namdakov, internationally acclaimed artist, says: “That the world is changing nowadays. Globalization makes its own way. It is very interesting to travel round the world, to watch new civilizations and countries, meet interesting people”. His full name is “Dashi-Nima” which is means “Blessed Sun”. “Blessed Sun” has glorified not only a Master himself but his native land and the Buryat people as well.

We are happy that the son of the Buryat people has found his own place on top of the world’s Art arena. His works touch my soul, his works touch the soul of millions people all over the world. We are proud of Dashi Namdakov.