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Roots of Asia Tarot      2001 Amnart Klanprachar      Switzerland                                                   Art Medium: Oil paintings. Description: Inspired by Buddhism the Thai artist Amnart Klanprachar created a deck to show the main points of Buddhist religious philosophy. The book by Thaworn Boonyawan provides an introduction to meditation in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Amnart Klanprachar spent four years researching the many tarot card styles on the market around the world, as well as the Buddhist tenets that could be matched up with each tarot card and its interpretation. For example, the four of wands card, which traditionally suggests success, was presented in his deck as the Buddha's four pillars to success - aspiration, perseverance, thoughtfulness and assessment. After Amnart matched all the cards with Eastern spirituality principles, he went on a year-long meditation retreat to translate those abstract ideas into 79 oil-on-canvas paintings (78 cards, plus one for the cover), using unconventional tools, such as knives, his hands and rods. He said his idiosyncratic style of art was also an interpretation of dhamma and a result of his year-long dhamma practices. The flowing yet blurry pictures with no clear-cut lines or borders, the artist said, were his interpretation of the laws of non-self and impermanence. The original oil on canvas painting were shown at the exhibition hall, Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, on September 26 to October 5, 2001.