Indian roots
The scroll painting tradition travels north with Buddhism itself, carried on cloth because cloth can be rolled, hidden and moved — a portable shrine for a monastic culture that walked.
The Newar workshops
By the 11th century Newar painters of the Kathmandu Valley were the most sought-after in the Himalaya, invited to Tibet to paint monastery walls and to train local hands. Paubha in Nepal and thangka in Tibet grow from that meeting.
The living schools
Menri, Karma Gadri and Newari Paubha remain the three lineages practised in our studio. Menri is dense and richly ornamented; Karma Gadri is open, landscape-led and restrained; Paubha is jewelled and symmetrical.