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Buchung Nubgya: A Master Thangka Artist
BUCHUNG NUBGYA of Shigatse paints in the style of the Tsang School of Painting which fully emerged as a distinctive style from the time of the great 15th-century master painter Menla Dhondup. Generations later, two great Master Painters of the 20th century, representing this school of painting was Kachen Losang Phuntsog and Phuntsok Dorjee. Bhuchung studied under them.
Buchung Nubgya was born in 1979. In 1985 at the age of nine, he was recruited by His Holiness the Tenth Panchen Lama to study painting at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. For seven years (1985 – 1992) he studied under the above two masters. Buchung Nubgya graduated in 1992, placing first in his class.
From 1993 – 1996 Buchung Nubgya worked under his two tutors and was commissioned many works. For his many paintings for the Sisum Namgyal (the memorial temple erected in honor of the late Tenth Panchen Lama in 1994), Buchung Nubgya was awarded a gold medal for his masterful paintings. He was also commissioned many murals on the second and third floors of the Tsuklakhang, the Central Temple at Lhasa. These paintings depicted the biographies of the Tibetan kings Songtsen Gambo and Trisong Detsen, as well as the life history of Guru Padmasambhava and paintings of the Neten Chudrug, or, the Sixteen Arhats.
During this same period, Buchung Nubgya worked on the murals of the temple of Drepung Chöra, the debating courtyard of Gomang monastic college. He also painted many murals for the new Dhukhang, the assembly hall of Sera Monastery’s Tsangp College, and for the new temple at Ganden Monastery’s Shartse College.
Outside of the Lhasa area, Buchung Nubgya was commissioned to do many murals at the Dhukhang, the main assemble hall of Sakya Monastery. He also worked on the main temple halls of Narthang Monastery, and, Samdhing Monastery located in Southern Tibet. Buchung also traveled to Amdo in Eastern Tibet, where he painted the murals at the main temple of Shangdhey Monastery, where he painted the murals at the main temple of Shangdhey Monastery, where the late Panchen Lama had established a school for reincarnate lamas.
In 1997 Buchung Nubgya escaped from Tibet and arrived in Dharamshala, India, where he presently resides. Since then, Buchung was commissioned numerous paintings for the Private Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his monastery, the Namgyal Monastery. He is also presently engaged in teaching the art of thangka painting to many students who are studying and working under him.
