The Dream Factory

The Universal Image

The Universal Image

In 2014, Tenzin Gylapo, an old farmer and local artist from the mountainous Tagtse region of Tibet, was dying. After having been found high on the mountainside, caught out in the open by an unexpected snowstorm, he had lain on his rough-hewn wooden bed for three days in a high fever. Drifting in and out of consciousness in the shuttered bedroom of his small stone hut high up on the Wangbur Mountain he slept the restless sleep of a man possessed. The locals, knowing his time had come, trudged passed his house and thinking of his wife tending him in his last few hours, cast their eyes down and prayed for him. He was a decent, honourable man.  

On the evening of the fourth day of his illness, just as the bright Himalayan sun was nestling into the crest of the mist clad peaks, Tenzin opened his eyes, rose from his bed and went into the little room he liked to call his studio and locked the door behind him. Despite entreaties from his wife to open the door all his was heard to say was, "I'm busy, please leave me alone for a little while."  

After six hours waiting his wife, hearing no movement from within the room, raised her neighbour's son who lent his sturdy bulk again the wooden door and pushed it in.  

Inside Tenzin lay dead. On a wooden board, its paint still wet, he'd left what would become to be known as the Tenzin Icon, the Worlds most wondrous and baffling piece of art.  

Tenzin's wife and her neighbours son were so overwhelmed by the piece that when concerned villagers came to check on her they found the body of Tenzin still on the floor and the pair standing transfixed by the painting. Within minutes the house was packed with villagers wanting to see what some were describing as, 'The Picture of Heaven.'  

The local monastery at Ganden hearing of the unusual picture sent a monk down the mountain to investigate and when he failed to return, the Lama himself descended. After gaining entrance through the massed crowd and sitting for two hours in silence before the piece the Lama tore his gaze from the picture, covered it in an old bedspread and carried it accompanied by the whole village, up to the monastery and put it on display there.  

Two days later a reporter for the Langdon Post hearing about the treasure at Ganden that was attracting thousands, trekked up into the snow line, queued for twelve hours in the thin cold air and viewed the picture. He found himself awestruck. Before leaving the room, he managed to take a picture of it and later e-mailed it to his office in the United States.  

As the image spread, the World began to change.  

The effect upon viewing the Tenzin Icon, is profound. The image is heart stopping beautiful, causing the breath to shorten, the soul to flutter and soar. It brings the realisation of one's insignificance within the greatness of the Universe, the awe of our existence, and a realisation of the purpose to which we have been born.  

It is a magical, mystical piece of art. When babies see it they stop crying, it is used in classrooms to instil silence, it brings infinite consolation to the old and infirm.  

What happened after it discovery was even more magical and mystifying.  

It turned bickering warlords into apologist, tyrants into pacifists, and murderers into repentants. Initially banned in a number of totalitarian states, it gradually consumed them, leading them to put aside their differences and join with other Nations in their aspirations. The aspirations of all. 

And while Nations joined, their peoples grew intellectually, the arts flourished, there was a flurry of scientific discoveries with huge advances in the fields of medicine and technology. In the cities slums where eradicated, homelessness and hunger were made a thing of the past. Mars was colonised to help with the pressure on Earths resources.  

The ten years since Tenzin's creation are now known as the Second Human Renaissance.  

What Tenzin saw that night on that cold, remote mountainside no one can know? At the point of death, something visited him and left a vision of such incomprehensible power it cannot be understood. It is considered that it should not be possible that it exists, its two dimensionality transcends all that had currently been understood about visual art and our ability to grasp it. Some have argued it represents heaven, others God himself, others claim it is a dissociative image that somehow breaks into our sub-consciousness and brings out all the raw emotions associated with the awareness of self. Others have argued that it is a deep set genetic programme that, at this time is too complex to understand.  

The image is now used as a symbol of World peace, it's been adopted by many Nations as part of their national flags, it's on posters, inside book covers and replicated on the side of buildings. Wherever it is seen it has the same profound effect. And it is seen everywhere.  

I cannot describe the image to you because it contents are indescribable. Many artists have sought to reproduce it, but turning away from the picture itself have found themselves incapable of pulling even the vaguest shadow of the image into their minds. They stand like empty vessels staring vacantly at a blank canvas, incapable of even beginning to replicate the smallest detail.  

Even now, after all these years since its creation, as I sit here and write this I know of its existence but I cannot summon its image into my mind. I have a facsimile of it in the drawer of my bureau yet despite seeing it innumerable times I cannot recollect what it looks like, only the sense of its being. But I know that, should I pull it out and gaze upon it my soul will fly to the highest precipice. It will instil in me all that is right, all that is fair. I will put aside my mind from material things and dwell upon those things that I can do for my follow humans, to alleviate the suffering and pain of others. My thoughts will swing to great hopes and the dizzying heights we could aspire to advance the human race and raise our place in the Universe against the tide of the inconsequentiality of our existence.  

It remains after all this time a magically inspirational piece of art. It still defies understanding and refuses to yield its secrets.  

And it may have ended there. But for one thing.  

Ten years ago, upon the image's discovery, it was attached to every space probe we sent into the edges of our Universe and beyond.  

Six months ago SETI received a message from a source far away, from within the Virgo cluster. It said merely, 'The Universal Image has revealed itself to you. We and the others are coming.'  

Now as we look up to the night sky we see hundreds of tiny pinpricks of light growing between the sparkling of the heavenly bodies, foretelling the arrival of vessels from all parts of the Universe.  

Tenzin's picture is now commonly known as the Universal Image.  

We are about to find out what it means. 

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Well you've reached the end of this collection- I hope you've found it an enjoyable experience. I've taken you to some dark places and some light ones. The new collection is Stranger Things if you'd like a look at that or try one of my little novella's if you fancy something different. 

Thank you for stopping by and for so many comments and votes. Happy reading! 

TLDorian