Li Gotami: The Woman Who
Dedicated Her Life to the Arts
NOV 6, 2017
Biography
Born into a wealthy Parsi
family on 22 April 1906 in Mumbai, Ratti Petit, more commonly known
as Li Gotami, was a talented painter, photographer and writer. Her
family owned the Bomanjee Dinshaw Petit Parsee General Hospital
located in Cumbala Hill, Mumbai. She attended a school in Harrow on
the Hill (an area northwest of London) in England and later studied
at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1924.
Li Gotami was a passionate
traveller and journeyed all over Europe before returning to India
in the 1930s. She was regarded as someone very unusual during her
time and was one of the very few women from traditional Indian
society who took the extraordinary step of breaking away from the
norms of how Indian women, or women in general, should live their
lives. According to her niece, Dr. Sylla Malvi, Li Gotami “was her
own person.” She also spoke of Li Gotami’s resolve,
“Unlike my obedient mother,
my aunt was head-strong, and nobody could tell her what to
do.
“Also, Li Gotami was part
of a larger cultural movement of seekers discovering Eastern
spirituality, long before the Beatles in the 1950s and the hippies
in the 1960s.”
Later in India, she worked
with artist Manishi Dey who introduced her to the Bengal School of
Art, an influential art movement and a style of Indian painting
that originated in Bengal, Shantiniketan and Kolkata. This genre
would eventually have a significant influence on her life and
works.
In the 1930s, Li Gotami
married art collector Karl Khandalavala but their marriage was
brief. In 1934, she travelled to Rabindranath Tagore’s ashram in
Shantiniketan to study under the artist Nandalal Bose and to learn
the art of Manipuri dance. According to Dr Malvi,
“Her parents were not happy
about her going away. In fact, my grandfather even sent her brother
[Maneckji Petit] to check on her.”
Dr Malvi also fondly
recollected a time when all the children in the neighbourhood in
Juhu were playing.
“She was like a magician.
And she told us to bring her any object — twigs, stones, paper —
and she would make something out of it. To challenge her, I took a
raw coconut that had fallen down. I knew she wouldn’t be able to
make anything out of it. But she turned it around, drew two eyes
and made a little mouse. She was like that; so imaginative. She
could see things in the ordinary.”
Li Gotami spent a total of
12 years at Shantiniketan, where she excelled in her studies and
received a number of diplomas from the various Arts and Music
Schools there. Later she met Abanindranath Tagore, the nephew of
Rabindranath Tagore, a significant painter of that time who also
taught at the arts school. Abanindranath Tagore was very impressed
by Li Gotami’s work and would later become her mentor. According to
Malvi,
“She absolutely worshipped
Abanindranath Tagore. It was he who told her that she would excel
in religious and children’s paintings.”
During her time at
Shantiniketan, Li Gotami also met Lama Anagarika Govinda for the
first time. The encounter took place when she was making her way to
the hostel where Lama Govinda was staying at the time. The
encounter is described as follows:
“A door opened and out
strolled this handsome, smiling foreigner dressed in the burgundy
robes of a monk. She recalled asking herself who this “bright merry
person” might be, and in retrospect (at least on her part)
remembered the incident as very romantic.”
Source: Kovács, Iván. Lama
Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The
Esoteric Quarterly. 2015
She proceeded to study
under Lama Govinda, a Bolivian-German Professor of Vishwa Bharati
University and a prominent teacher to notable students such as
Indira Nehru, who would later become the first female Prime
Minister of India. Under his guidance, Li Gotami’s interest in
Buddhism grew very quickly.
He also brought her to meet
his teacher, Domo Geshe Rinpoche. Lama Govinda’s book, “The Way of
the White Clouds”, records how Domo Geshe Rinpoche had predicted
that Li Gotami would become Lama Govinda’s wife. However, Domo
Geshe Rinpoche had kept that information secret until the day of
their marriage.
Li Gotami married Lama
Govinda in four separate ceremonies in 1947. Lama Govinda performed
one of the ceremonies himself, in the role of a lama. Two other
ceremonies were held in Darjeeling and Mumbai, and the fourth was
held in Tse-Choling Monastery in the Chumbi Valley, presided over
Tibet by Ajorepa Rinpoche.
Prior to meeting Ajorepa
Rinpoche, Lama Govinda had been working very hard to obtain permits
to enter Tsaparang, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Guge in
the Garuda Valley, and the newly married couple were full of
anticipation at the prospect of visiting the beautiful city. When
they arrived at Tse-Choling Monastery, then under the leadership of
Ajorepa Rinpoche, the incarnation of the 8th century Mahasiddha
Dombi-Heruka, Ajorepa Rinpoche inducted both Lama Govinda and Li
Gotami into the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
After spending some time in
Tse-Choling Monastery, they continued their journey to the city of
Gyantse. During their four-month stay in Gyantse, they explored
various monasteries and retreat places, attended festivals and
religious ceremonies, and Li Gotami took many pictures of
everything that grabbed her fancy. Finally, they received the
necessary permits in January 1948 and Li Gotami and Lama Govinda
returned to India to prepare for their expedition to
Tsaparang.
A Long Awaited
Journey
From Kasar Devi, the couple
embarked on a number of expeditions to central and western Tibet
between 1947 and 1949. The two-year expedition was fully sponsored
by the “Illustrated Weekly of India” in exchange for a written
account of the trip. The pictures taken during this particular
expedition would later be featured in their books, “The Way of the
White Clouds”, “Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism” and “Tibet in
Pictures”.
During the expedition, Li
Gotami and Lama Govinda often had to endure harsh and dangerous
living conditions in the arid landscape. They also had to put up
with extreme cold weather, and their diet mostly consisted of
porridge and chapatis, cooked slowly over a brushwood and yak dung
fire. Temperatures were so low that they literally had to drink
their tea immediately after boiling, otherwise it would freeze
inside their cups! Li Gotami recalled,
“A storm then broke. The
rain nearly froze us while the wind howled like hungry wolves
around us. Oh, those winds! They are Tibet’s worst enemy, and if I
were ever asked to picture them, I would draw a hundred thousand
ice-bound daggers with the head of a howling wolf for every
hilt.”
Kovács, Iván. Lama
Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The
Esoteric Quarterly. 2015
As part of the expedition,
Li Gotami and Lama Govinda also visited the beautiful Mount Kailash
and spent a few days circumambulating the sacred
mountain.
When they finally arrived
in Tsaparang, Li Gotami and Lama Govinda lived in a hut in front of
a cave, where a shepherd named Wangdu lived with his family. Wangdu
would bring them the basic necessities – brushwood, water and milk
– as there were no other families living in the area.
The couple always began
their day with prayers and pujas, and then would work from morning
to evening, tracing, sketching and photographing the remains of
frescoes, statues, temples and other surviving artworks in the
area.
Their stay in Tsaparang was
marked by many challenges, including difficulties caused by the
local Tibetans and authorities who were suspicious of their work.
Although conditions were difficult, they did not give up and
remained buoyant in the face of these obstacles.
After completing their
work, the couple planned to return to India but found that the
Himalayan passes were closed for three months until spring time.
While waiting for the passes to reopen, they lived in a rest-house
run by a kind Nyingma Lama named Namgyal. Around this period, they
also met the Nyingma Abbot of Phiyang Monastery, an extremely
learned master who taught them the method of yoga practices and
Tantric sadhana.
When the passes were
finally accessible, Li Gotami and Lama Govinda returned to northern
India where they stayed in a house rented from the famed writer
Walter Evans-Wentz at Kasar Devi. Otherwise known as “Crank’s
Ridge”, Kasar Devi was a bohemian home to various artists, writers
and spiritual seekers such as John Blofeld, Earl Brewster, Alfred
Sorensen and many others. Li Gotami busied herself with the
practical matters of running the household and sketching, while
Lama Govinda occupied himself by writing.
Dr Malvi, whose home is
dotted with several of Li Gotami’s paintings, says,
“My aunt travelled
extensively with him, but never really earned a reputation as an
artist.”
In 1955, Li Gotami and Lama
Govinda moved to a 40-acre estate in Almora, located in north-west
India. They maintained an ashram there and studied painting,
Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Although their living
conditions were ‘difficult’ – the area was completely barren and
they had no access to running water and electricity – they enjoyed
themselves very much as it was exactly the kind of life they were
looking for – one that was simple, peaceful and quiet.
Li Gotami’s niece Roshan
Cooper says,
“It was absolutely in the
wilderness. There was no electricity, no running water. And our
mother would take us two youngsters to spend time with them. She
would always say her happiest years were in Almora. Her happiness
was in the soul.”
Dr Malvi adds,
“She would also play the
piano wonderfully and we would all sing.”
Death
Towards the end of her
life, Li Gotami and Lama Govinda were invited to live in the United
States. Initially, they lived in California and later settled down
in the San Francisco Bay Area due to health issues they were both
facing at that time. She had Parkinson’s disease while Lama Govinda
had suffered from several strokes.
A Zen centre that belonged
to Alan Watts and Suzuki Roshi provided them with comfortable
lodging in Mill Valley, California. In return for their assistance
and care, Lama Govinda gave lectures in the centre. They later
became permanent residents of the United States and were eligible
for government health benefits.
Lama Govinda suffered a
sudden heart attack and passed away peacefully on 14 January 1985
while having a conversation with Li Gotami. His ashes were interred
in the Nirvana Stupa in Samten Choeling Monastery in Darjeeling,
India. A few months after her husband’s death, Li Gotami returned
to India and lived with her family. She passed away on 18 August
1988 in Pune, Maharashtra.
Numerous pieces of Li
Gotami’s art and fresco tracings from Tibet are still kept in the
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai, which
hosted an exhibition showcasing her work on 2 February 2008 titled
“Tibet through the eyes of Li Gotami”. Her books including “Tibet
in Pictures” and “Tibetan Fantasies: Paintings, Poems, and Music”
have become some of the most sought-after today and her life-long
contribution to the arts has left a strong imprint in the modern
world. Her incredible life and works will not be forgotten any time
soon.