T
Tenzin Dorjee
Master painter · 19 years
Apprenticed at age twelve in the Karma Gadri tradition. Recognized for the quietude of his Buddhas.
Sacred Art · Est. 1998
The painted presence of awakened beings, unbroken for a thousand years.
A small atelier of master Thangka painters, working in Boudhanath, Kathmandu. Mineral pigment, 24-karat gold, and breath-thin lines — each piece blessed at the stupa and shipped directly to your wall.
Recently completed
Highlights from the archive
Featured pieces will appear here once products are published.
The craft
Four months of breath, line, and silence.
Cotton canvas sized with chalk and lime. Pigments ground from lapis, malachite, vermillion, conch — bound in yak-hide glue. Twenty-four-karat gold leaf burnished by hand with agate.
“The Buddha is already in the cloth. The painter only uncovers him, slowly, with great care.”
Each piece passes through three artists, four months, and a final eye-opening — the moment the painting becomes alive. Then it is taken to Boudhanath stupa, blessed, rolled in silk, and shipped to you.
How a Thangka is painted →Symbolism
Every line is a visualisation
Mudras, mantras, mandalas. A Thangka is not decoration — it is a meditation made visible.
Mudras
Hand gestures of awakening — earth-touching, meditation, teaching, fearlessness.
Mandalas
Sacred geometry as a map of the awakened mind, drawn in concentric rings.
Lotus thrones
Eight-petaled — the Eightfold Path. Born of mud, blooming pure.
Aureoles
Concentric haloes for body, speech, and mind — the three doors of practice.
The atelier
Painted by human hands
P
Pema Lhamo
Senior painter · 14 years
Specialises in the female deities — Tara, Vajrayogini, Kurukulla. Crisp line, generous color.
N
Ngawang Sherpa
Mandala master · 22 years
A patient hand for the largest pieces. His Kalachakras have travelled to four continents.
Stay close
Letters from the atelier, once a month.
New pieces, work-in-progress photographs, notes from the painters, and the occasional dispatch from Boudhanath. Never spam, never shared.