Shashi Dhoj Tulachan

Shashi Dhoj Tulachan, called Guru Nawang Chhogyall Tenzin, is the spiritual leader of the Chhairo gompa, of Nyingma Tibetan Buddhism, having been given responsibility for the Gompa by the current incarnation who is not a practising lama. He is also responsible for three gompas in Tukuche, his home village on the right bank of the Kali Gandaki, and in the Annapurna trail:

  • Sambha gompa (Karmapa/Kagyu) - instituted in 1935
  • Rani gompa
  • Mahakala gompa - instituted in 1930 by four members of the Tulachan family including Shashi Dhoj's father, Kamal Dhoj Tulachan
Chhairo Gompa: Lama Shashi Dhoj Tulachan, Chhairo, Lower Mustang, Nepal

Family heritage

Lama Shashi is a master in Buddhist thangka painting and is committed to re-establishing residential monk community at Chhairo gompa. The Tulachan family is from the neighbouring village of Tukuche, to the south and comes from a long line of Buddhist artists. His father, Kamal Dhoj Tulachan,[1] and grandfather are responsible for many wall paintings and statues to be found in gompas, chortens and private household shrines in villages of the Thak Kola (upper Kali Gandaki) area.[2][3]

Chhairo Gompa: Lama Shashi drawing in the new gyalpo

Shashi began by assisting his father and elder brother, Krsna Dhoj Tulachan, aged 9, accompanying them to villages around Mustang. By the age of 18 he had received his first solo assignment to paint the Mani Lha K'an of Gemi village, Mustang.

Mustang monasteries

Evidence of Shashi Dhoj's work in monasteries and gompas of the Mustang area are recorded extensively in RK Rai's 1994 inventory of monasteries in Mustang.[4]

Gompa/ Mani (branch)LocationDateDetailsSchool
smad Kyi Lha K'anKobang1960assisting his father Kamal Dhoj Tulachan, new frescos
Mani Lha K'an (Nyingmapa)Gemi (Mustang)1961-1962First solo commissionsMon Bris
Rani Gompa (Kagyu)Tukuche1962-1963assisting his father Kamal Dhoj Tulachannew frescos
Bon dKar GompaLupra1961, 1966assisting his father Kamal Dhoj Tulachan, new frescos to chapel walls
Mani Lha K'an (private chapel owned by A S Lakma)Thilim, Gemi (Mustang)1963, 1991sMon Bris
Utse Gompa (nGorpa Sakyapa)Geling (Mustang)1975sMon Bris
Narsang Gompa (Nyingmapa)Khanti1960, 1975main chapel walls, entire fresco removed and repainted
Tashi Cholin (nGorpa SakyapaGeling (Mustang)1989, 1991gompa founded by Globo mKhenchensMon Bris
Don gNak Seng-se Chilin -new Kyipar Gompa (Nyingmapa)Tukuche (Mustang)1986, 1988sMon Bris
Chhairo Gompa (Nyingmapa)Chhairo (Mustang)2013

Statuary

Lama Shashi's statue work can be seen at Lumbini and he designs many of the Buddhist statues produced at Karma Samtenling monastery in Kathmandu. A number of his buddhist paintings have been exhibited internationally.[5]

International exhibitions

Nine oversized thangka drawings from the Tibetan Karma Ghadri school of religious painting were exhibited at the Bowers Museum in 2013.[6]

Japan mandalas

Mandalas painted by Shashi Dhoj Tulachan and his brother Cakra Dhoj Tulachan, are the centrepiece of the Toga Meiso no Sato meditation centre in Toga mura, Japan. Four 4 metre by 4 metre Mandala Thangkas were painted in Toga mura (Toga village), Toyama prefecture over 18 months in 1988 and 1989. The themes of the four mandalas are of:

  • The Tibetan Book of the Dead
  • Sukhavati (Amiitabha's Pure Land)
  • Vajradhatu Mandala (Diamond Realm Mandala)
  • Garbhadhatu Mandala (Womb Realm Mandala)

Shashi Dhoj returned to Toga mura, a sister village of Tukuche; Shashi Dhoj Tulachan's home village;[7] [8] in April 1991 for the opening of the meditation centre. He returned again in 1994 to paint a Mandala of the Two Realms, combining Japanese and Tibetan styles.[9][10]

References
  1. Tabernacle Yarns-Toga Meditation Centre, retrieved 2 November 2013.
  2. The Chhairo Gompa circle, Bird of Passage, retrieved 13 March 2013.
  3. Sadao Yoshinaga, Travels in Mustang, visiting temples and monasteries I the Upper Kali Gandaki (PDF), Japanese Alpine Club 2001, retrieved 13 March 2013.
  4. The Thakalis, Bon dKar and Lamaist monasteries along the Kali Gandaki: The Ancient Salt Route in Western Nepal (1994) R K Rai, Book Faith India
  5. , Bowers Museum http://www.bowers.org/index.php/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/151-sacred-realms-temple-murals-by-shashi-dhoj-tulachan-from-the-gayle-and-edward-p-roski-collection, retrieved 13 March 2015 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. http://www.bowers.org/index.php/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/151-sacred-realms-temple-murals-by-shashi-dhoj-tulachan-from-the-gayle-and-edward-p-roski-collection, retrieved Mar 2015 Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. Meiso no Sato website (Japanese), retrieved 2 November 2013.
  8. Meiso no Sato (English), retrieved 2 November 2013.
  9. The Thakalis, Bon dKar and Lamaist monasteries along the Kali Gandaki: The Ancient Salt Route in Western Nepal (1994) R K Rai, Book Faith India
  10. Togamura brochure (Japanese) n.d.
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