ShinsungHwa: Visualizing Alexandra David-Neel’s Spiritual Energy (2019)
What is ShinsungHwa?
ShinsungHwa is a unique form of spiritual art where drawings emerge through spontaneous, flowing movements. Artists tap into their subject’s energy and let Qi(氣) guide their hands, creating geometric patterns that serve as a universal language.
A Brief Glimpse into Alexandra David-Néel’s ShinsungHwa
There’s something quietly powerful about Alexandra David-Néel’s ShinsungHwa. She was someone who knew that the toughest roads often take you where you need to go. The image looks simple at first glance—maybe even plain.
But meditation revealed something deeper. The spiritual messages kept pointing to one thing: the pain she carried and chose to face head-on. This wasn’t self-punishment or playing the martyr. She simply recognized what most of us spend our lives running from—that suffering can be the doorway to real growth.
For Alexandra, pain wasn’t the enemy. It was something to walk straight through, eyes wide open. In her world, suffering had become light. Right up until she died at 101, she was still packing for her next trip. Some people just never stop being ready for adventure.
Her ShinsungHwa shows a ‘symbol of light‘ at her chest—right where we keep our truest selves. This light feels like authenticity, the kind that embraces everything, even the hard stuff. Her ‘spiritual core’ appears as a counterclockwise spiral, with ‘spiral energy’ moving upward into spiritual realms. It’s as if her essence was still climbing, still reaching for something more.
The Woman Who Walked to the Roof of the World
In the 1920s, a petite woman in her fifties slipped through snowy Himalayan passes disguised as a Tibetan beggar, her boots worn thin and threadbare. This wasn’t an escape. Alexandra David-Néel was on a mission—determined to be the first Western woman to set foot in Lhasa, Tibet’s forbidden city.
Born to Wander
Alexandra arrived in the world in 1868, just outside Paris, at a time when Victorian rules told women to be quiet and well-behaved. But Alexandra? She was different from day one. Even as a child, she was restless—her mind always on the next horizon. Raised by freethinker parents, she inherited a streak of rebellion—and an incurable case of wanderlust.
At eighteen, she stunned everyone by taking her grandmother’s inheritance and heading alone to India. When her money ran out, Alexandra didn’t give up—she joined an opera troupe, sang her way across North Africa, and performed under the stage name Alexandra Myrial in productions from Carmen to La Traviata.
Marriage on Her Terms
Tunisia brought Philippe Néel into her life, a railway engineer who would become her husband. But this wasn’t your average romance. Alexandra hyphenated her name (unheard of in 1904) and their marriage was mostly long-distance. Philippe understood—married life was never going to keep her grounded, and he supported her journeys, even from afar.
By 1911, Alexandra had become a respected lecturer in France, known for her insights on Eastern religions. With backing from the Ministry of Education, she set off for India to study Sanskrit. What was meant to be a scholarly trip turned into a fourteen-year adventure that changed everything.
The Dalai Lama and a Son Found in the East
Before long, Alexandra achieved something no Western woman had: she met the 13th Dalai Lama. He was impressed enough to teach her Tibetan and Buddhist philosophy. More importantly, she met a young monk named Aphur Yongden—eventually adopting him as her son.
For nearly two years, they lived in a Himalayan cave in Sikkim—surviving brutal winters with just meditation and thin cotton for warmth. She mastered tummo, the legendary “inner fire” practiced by Tibetan monks to ward off the cold.
Breaking Through to Lhasa
Still, Alexandra’s greatest dream was ahead: reaching Lhasa. Foreigners—especially Western women—were strictly forbidden. At fifty-five, when most look toward retirement, she set her sights on the impossible. With Yongden at her side, and disguised as poor Tibetan pilgrims, they trekked across dangerous terrain for months, facing icy rivers, bitter winds, and constant risk of discovery. Alexandra darkened her skin, dyed her hair, and imitated the walk and speech of local women. In 1924, she finally crossed into Lhasa—something no Western woman had done before.
The Storyteller and Her Doubters
Alexandra later wrote over thirty books about her travels and Buddhist studies. Her best-known works, My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet, captured imaginations worldwide with vivid storytelling and a sense of wonder.
Not everyone bought her stories. Some, like scholar Jeanne Denys, accused Alexandra of exaggeration or fabrication. For years, Denys dogged her, determined to prove she’d never reached Lhasa. Yet later evidence backed up much of Alexandra’s account. Perhaps the skepticism had less to do with fact than with style—her books were rich with spiritual awe and mystery, lacking the dry tone male explorers preferred.
Coming Home, Staying Restless
She didn’t return to France until 1946, at age seventy-eight. Even then, Alexandra refused to slow down—she continued to write and lecture into her nineties, living in a Tibetan-inspired house she designed herself.
Alexandra’s influence reached far. Beat Generation writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg found new inspiration in her work. She brought Tibetan Buddhism to the West long before it was fashionable. Even the current Dalai Lama has credited her with deepening Western understanding of Tibet.
Alexandra David-Néel died just shy of her 101st birthday in 1969, after witnessing two world wars and a century of change. She was never easy—often stubborn, occasionally self-important, sometimes a product of her time. But she was always brave, always curious, and, above all, fiercely open to the world.
Her story stands as proof: you don’t have to be “allowed” to pursue wonder. Sometimes, all it takes is ignoring the word “impossible” and simply going—boots and all.
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