Artist displays pride in culture

Thangka tradition motivates painter to show world its essence, Mingmei Li reports in New York.

Once he was a 12-year-old boy painting strokes and grinding pigments from dawn till dusk. Four decades later Nyingbum is a thangka master, passing on the ancient technique to a new generation.

Nyingbum recently concluded his latest exhibition, Inheritance and Beyond, in New York, presenting 16 pieces celebrating Tibetan Buddhism — a culture deeply tied to the Xizang autonomous region, known for its towering mountains and sweeping river valleys.

The exhibition, held at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve art gallery in Pleasantville, New York, in the Hudson Valley, mirrored the essence of Northwest China, particularly Qinghai province, and Xizang in Southwest China, with its picturesque terraces, plateaus, rivers and mountains, at a gentler elevation, making Nyingbum's art "feel like home".