Zen Alys is an animation that shows the three decades development of the paradisiacal Alys Beach seaside town and culminates with a drawing of the mountains in Ngamring in the Tibetan Plateau.
The work makes an analogy between the idealised dream of peace and serenity that the planned architecture of the Alys Beach town claims to provide and the meditative tradition of Tibet.
Why the analogy is with the Tibet Plateau? Well, Alys Beach GPS co-ordinates are around 30° 17' 1" North and 86° 1' 50" West and the Tibetan Plateau is 30° 17' 1" North and 86° 1' 50" East; so the two places are literally on opposite side of the globe, longitude-wise.
I found fascinating and ironic that a place that is known to be a heaven or paradise for the wealthy is exactly 180° degrees apart from this meditation sanctuary of Tibet.
The Ngamring region in Tibet, is a surrounded by 5 sacred mountains and is where the Ngamring Chode – a Geluk monastery – is located. The Geluk tradition became the dominant religious order in Tibet in the seventeenth century and the Dalai Lama’s main teachings are drawn from it up to this day. It’s man points are the meditations on impermanence and the precious nature of a human rebirth.
