Prominent Tibetan Thangka Artist and Teacher Dies

By Tenzin Samten / September 8, 2022;

Photo :RFA

Prominent Tibetan thangka painter Tenpa Rabten, 82, has died in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet on August 29, reports Radio Free Asia. Rabten was one of the artists who designed the imagery for the Tibetan currency notes used in Tibet before China’s invasion. He painted thangkas – the Tibetan traditional religious art form – and taught hundreds of students.

“There have been many teachers of thangka painting, but Tenpa Rabten was someone who nurtured hundreds of students under his personal guidance, and he contributed immensely to the preservation of Tibetan traditional painting […] His passing is an irreparable loss for Tibetan tradition,” said Buchung Nubgya, a Tibetan living in New York who has met the Tibetan painter several times, speaking to RFA.

Tibetan currency note during the time of the 13th Dalai Lama designed by Tenpa Rabten’s grandfather
Photo : RFA

Tenpa Rabten was born in 1941 into a family of artists; his grandfather Aepa Tsering Gyawu was the 13th Dalai Lama’s personal artist and his father, Drungtok Kelsang Norbu, was professor at the Creative Training Institute in Tibet, an agency of Tibet’s governing office before Tibet China’s invasion of Tibet in 1959. Tenpa Rabten was introduced to thangka painting at a young age and went on to be one of the imagery designers for Tibetan currency before Tibet came under Chinese rule.

Thankgka painting of Buddhist deity Chakra Sambhara by Tenpa Rabten
Photo: RFA

Tenpa Rabten founded a private fine arts school in 1980, providing free education to underprivileged students and trained over 200 artists through this institution. He was Professor of Traditional Tibetan painting at Tibet University in Lhasa, gaining international recognition along with awards in Japan and China for his contribution to the arts and from 2014 served as mentor for the Chinese National Artists Association.

Tibet’s cultural heritage was largely destroyed in during China’s Cultural Revolution and for years artists like Tenpa Rabten were forbidden from producing traditional art. RFA learned that he later wrote a number of articles about traditional Tibetan painting.