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The painting style that resulted was a distinctive and brilliant blending of the best painting techniques from Tibet, India an d China. The composition was in the Tibetan manner, the forms were in accordance with the highest Indian standards, and the coloring and texture were of the Chinese method. The Chinese influence can, in fact, be traced to numerous examples of Chinese scroll painting that had been offered to His Holiness, the fifth Karmapa (Hierarch Deshin Shekpa, 1384-1415), by the Ming emperor Yung Lo of China. The artistic tradition that Namka Tashi thus established became known as the “Karma Gardri,” or “Camp style of the Karma Kagyu school”.
Later the artist Cho Tashi appeared to follow this Gardri style and spread it widely. Still later, another artist propagated the virtues and distinct elements of the Karma Gardri School named Kasho Karma Tashi. These then, in brief, are referred to as the “Three Tashis” who extensively developed the Gardri traditions that have lasted until the present day.
Recent History
In the year 1902 A.D., Lama Thangla Tsewang, was born in the region of Arap, Palyul in eastern Tibet which is the seat of His Eminence Kyabgon Tai Situpa at Palpung Monastery in Derge. Gifted from an early age, Thangla Tsewang studied painting and sculpture under two accomplished Gardri masters, Wari Lama Lodro, who excelled at drawing, and Payma Rabten, a holder of the Karsho lineage who excelled in coloring. Beginning with this extensive training in the arts, Thangla Tsewang spent his entire life in ceaseless creative activity, and it is said that whoever viewed his work, whether they were discerning or not, found the forms illuminating and in accord with the import of the sutras and tantras. The previous H.E. Tai Situ Rinpoche, Pema Gyalpo, conferred on Lama Thangla Tsewang the honor of remarking that his paintings were so good as to be fit to be installed in shrines without being formally consecrated.
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