Traditional Tangkha Painting Teachers:

Pungtso Dorje (Male)

In 1966 Pungtso Dorje was born in Yang village, Torcho Township, Namling County, Shigatse Prefecture. Beginning at the age of 16 he apprenticed for four years under Galsang La, the master painter of the renowned Tashilhunpo Monastery in central Tibet. He then studied under Khachen Lobsang La, the personal painter of the Tenth Panchen Lama. Pungtso La’s major works include wall paintings at the main temple (the stupa hall of the Fifth to Ninth Panchen Lamas) and the stupa hall of the Tenth Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery, which took nearly four years to complete. Besides these works, Pungtso La’s tanghkas depicting the Ninth Panchen Lama and the Tenth Panchen Lama are housed in the permanent collection of the monastery; the over four- meter-long tangkha scroll depicting the Tenth Panchen Lama is an especially treasured work displayed only during important religious festivities. Pungtso La has served as lead painter in many important commissions, notably at Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple, Drepung Monastery, and Sera Monastery, as well as at Samye Monastery in Shannan Prefecture, site of Tibet’s first Buddhist monastery; at Dingma Temple in Mengla village, Namling County, Shigatse Prefecture; and at Samding Temple in Nagarze County, among others.

Master Pungtso is not only an exceptional artist, but is loved and admired for his kindness and erudition. All those who have made his acquaintance are moved by his being and his work. He began taking on students in 1987 and is an extremely knowledgeable and experienced teacher. In 2006 he published the first comprehensive Tibetan-language textbook on traditional Tibetan tangkha painting.