Tashi Gurung

Tashi Gurung was a farmer. He grew up in Lo Manthang — the walled capital of the former Kingdom of Lo, closed to outsiders until 1992 — with no exposure to Tibetan Buddhist painting. Today he is a Thangka and Mandala artist.

In 1999, Tashi and several other artists began restoring 500-year-old Buddhist murals in local gompas (monasteries). Tashi helped to restore Jampa, Thupchen, Tsarang, and other Buddhist gompas, as documented in the NOVA PBS documentary "Lost Treasures of Tibet".

The project trained local Loba people in conservation rather than importing specialists. Tashi's training certificate — signed by chief conservator Luigi Fieni and by the King of Mustang — records excellent marks in consolidation, cleaning and retouching, and supervisory skills.

Tashi then went on several UNESCO-sponsored trips to Bhutan, Nepal, Ladakh in India, Tibet, and Kham in China to help restore other Buddhist monasteries.

Inspired by this experience, Tashi began travelling to Kathmandu each winter to study ancient painting and iconography under Master Thangka Painter Mukti Singh Thapa — three months at a time, across five years.

"In Nepal, no one knows how to do this, so we have to learn," he told The New York Times in 2013 — the only painter quoted among a team of thirty-five.

Tashi paints from Lowa Art Gallery & Book Shop, near the main gate of Lo Manthang, which he has run since 1999. Lo Manthang is only open to tourists 2-3 months a year due to the cold Tibetan winters and long monsoon seasons. Tashi is painting Thangkas in other months and sometimes escapes to the warmer Kathmandu.

All thangkas are hand-painted on cotton cloth. For traditional Mustang Thangkas, Tashi uses local mineral pigments from semiprecious stones such as vermillion and orpiment. These are ground into a powder for 3 months, then mixed with Yak hide glue and water. 24-carat gold is also used in some Thangkas.

Recognition:

• Upper Mustang Conservation Project, training certificate in the conservation of wall paintings, statues and wood. Excellent in consolidation, cleaning and retouching; supervisory skills. Signed by Luigi Fieni, Chief Conservator, and Jigme Palbar Bista, King of Mustang. Working seasons 2009-2010
• American Himalayan Foundation and King Mahendra Trust. Restoration of 500-year-old murals at Jampa, Thupchen, and Tsarang gompas, Lo Manthang. 1999
• American Himalayan Foundation, certificates of course completion in thangka painting under Master Thangka Painter Mukti Thapa
• UNESCO. Restoration of Buddhist monasteries across Bhutan, Ladakh (India), Tibet, and Kham.

Press and Media:

• NOVA PBS Documentary. "Lost Treasures of Tibet". February 18, 2003
• New York Times. "Reconstructing Sacred Tibetan Murals." Edward Wong. February 24, 2013
• Galaxy 4k News. Mustang Special. TV Report. 2022
• BBC Future Earth. "Inside the exquisite Tibetan monasteries" Tulsi Rauniyar. April 29, 2024

Selected Exhibitions:

• The Australian Himalayan Foundation and Siddhartha Art Gallery present "Mustang: A Spiritual Odyssey." Baber Mahal Revisited, Kathmandu, February 20 – March 13, 2013. Opened by H.E. Ms Susan Grace, Australian Ambassador to Nepal.
• Art House SF. "Buddhist Thangka Art" exhibit, 2022, 2023, 2025. San Francisco, USA.

Private Collections:

Tashi Gurung’s hand-painted thangkas are in private collections across the United States (California, New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee, Colorado, New York, Georgia, Connecticut, Ohio, Alabama, Washington, Delaware, Florida, Virginia, New Hampshire, Michigan), Australia, and the United Kingdom.