On January 1, a private painting exhibition themed on “words to ancient rocks” was held in Shanghai. Visitors were amazed by the diverse works, from creational paintings and elegant Tibetan calligraphy to ancient rock paintings which date back to the Neolithic Age.
The author is special. He is an art teacher and also named as the researcher and protector of ancient Tibetan rock paintings. The exhibition is not only a show of his skills but also a summary of his painting life. It’s his first time to showcase thangka paintings and his creational paintings together.
Lhari Gyayang Nyima was born in Kangding, Sichuan in 1972. He graduated from Sichuan Tibetan Language School in 1993. Now, he is an advanced instructor in Yushu Vocational School, honorary chairman of Yushu Calligraphy and Painter Association in Qinghai Province and vice chairman of Qinghai Ethnic Calligrapher and Painter Association. For over a decade, he has been working hard.
In his early years, his creational paintings combined with ethnic favor and personal style are quite special. Deeply attracted by the special cultural charm of Tibetan art, he devoted himself to studying thangka paintings and researching ancient rock paintings.
Receiving wide popularity in the field, his thangka paintings have won many awards. For most, however, it’s surprising to learn that drawing thangka paintings is not his original option.
As he said, he was fond of painting since he was a kid. But he wasn’t trained when he was young. During his school life, He didn’t have a chance to learn about it.
It was when he stared working that he began to learn thangka paintings. Compared with the other painters learning at an early age, he started late and met many difficulties.
The other painters learned it from their masters who taught them in a systematic way so they have a strong foundation. For him, owing to his lack of teachers and limited spare time, he have to learn by himself with his pure enthusiasm.
Let’s take the canvas for example. It’s special. He just heard of it before. When it comes to making it, the whole case is totally different. They have teachers who hold complete tools. But he has to gain them through numerous attempts.
Since Lhari began learning thangka paintings in 1989, he constantly paid visits to civil painters, as Thanglla’s famous apprentice Pugen and Yonden Tsering, Karma Delek, the 18th descendant of Karma Garzi painting style and Lotujie, the famous apprentice of Ganzhou who is a master of thangka paintings.
He has learnt many skills and inherited the authentic Karma Garzi thangka style, known as one of the three major styles. It’s believed that it was created by Namkha Tashi, a living Buddha and got a fame at Karmapa Buddhism meeting.
He’s also trying to do something different, as the depiction of environment. The other ethnics may find it diverse, including mountains, stones and rivers. But he is trying to create something new which looks more beautiful.
There are base lines on the Buddha images of thangka paintings. They are not allowed to draw Buddha images which don’t coincide with the base lines. And no differences can be endured for the Buddha images.
So, they can only make attempts on the environment, like the color of mountains and rivers. He hopes such efforts will bring something new to other ethnics. He really wants to probe on environment, such as the flowers and the techniques by Han people.
The art has brought much joy to him. And at the same time, it brings him many troubles.
He don’t have enough time to work on paintings. He’s a teacher in Yushu Vocational School. With heavy burdens on the courses, he only has very little time on thangka paintings. He has to deal with the naughty students, which is disturbing. So he find it hard for him to draw thangka paintings peacefully.
At first, he thought he couldn’t get around it and wanted to give it up. He was distracted and couldn’t draw thangka paintings well. He did meet such difficult time. When the students had a fight or were undisciplined, the school needs him to manage them. It often happened. Sometimes he really wants to quit.
So when he was off work, he would work on thangka paintings silently. And that’s his happy time.
Besides thangka paintings, we know that his Tibetan calligraphy is pretty good. Whatever for calligraphy or thangka paintings, there are three major requirements as he mentioned beforehand. They are passion, diligence and perseverance. None of them should be ignored.
When learning thangka paintings, one’s hand has received much practice, stable and strong. With the basis, it would be a lot easier to learn calligraphy. They are inner-connected.
At Shanghai’s exhibition, in addition to thangka paintings and calligraphy works, those receiving the most attention from the public are the rock paintings which have historical value. They are resulted from his ten years of ongoing efforts by walking around the vast depopulated zone of
the origin of the three rivers. Also, they are firstly released in public and are the most ancient rock paintings dating back to the Neolithic Age. The raw and ancient painting style demonstrates the primitive vitality.
He think he happened to do it. There was a monk in Jiegu who had practiced for over ten years. One day he called Lhari and said that he was practicing. The monk wanted Lhari to help him draw a thangka painting. The monk asked Lhari whether Lhari was available and the monk wanted to talk to Lhari face to face.
Then he sent a man to pick Lhari up. They headed all the way into the mountain.
Suddenly Lhari saw some diagrams he’s never seen before on the rocks. They weren’t Buddha or the six syllable Mantra.
They had nothing to do with religion. They are images of horses, yaks, wolves and riding hunters.
For him, it all started with the monk who connected him with the rock painting. To know more of it, he’s working hard on it.
He have been spending his spare time on thangka and rock paintings. He never shorten his working hours. Teaching is Lhari’ s first priority. He never forget about it.
>> Watch the video interview on Chemi Time, please click here!
