Shashi Dhoj Tulachan, called ''Guru Nawang Chhogyall Tenzin'', is the spiritual leader of the

Chhairo gompa Chhairo Monastery (, THL Tsérok Monastery) was the first monastery of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism founded in Upper Mustang. It was established in the 16th century and is part of present-day Mustang District, Nepal. The village and t ...

, 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 Location Kamtsang Dargye Choekhorling Monastery, known locally as Sambha (Samba, Sampa) gompa (goenpa), is situated in Mustang district, Tukuche Village development committee (Nepal), Village development committee (VDC), in the Western Develo ...

(

Karmapa The Karmapa (honorific title '' His Holiness the Gyalwa'' ��ྒྱལ་བ་, Victorious One''Karmapa'', more formally as ''Gyalwang'' ��ྒྱལ་དབང་ཀརྨ་པ་, King of Victorious Ones''Karmapa'', and informally as the ' ...

Kagyu The ''Kagyu'' school, also transliterated as ''Kagyü'', or ''Kagyud'' (), which translates to "Oral Lineage" or "Whispered Transmission" school, is one of the main schools (''chos lugs'') of Tibetan (or Himalayan) Buddhism. The Kagyu lineag ...

) - 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

Family heritage

Lama Shashi is a master in Buddhist

thangka A ''thangka'', variously spelled as ''thangka'', ''tangka'', ''thanka'', or ''tanka'' (; Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा), is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk appliqué, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, ...

painting and is committed to re-establishing residential monk community at

. The Tulachan family is from the neighbouring village of

Tukuche Tukuche, sometimes spelt Tukche, is a village development committee in Mustang District in the Dhawalagiri Zone of northern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 652 people living in 166 individual households. The ...

, to the south and comes from a long line of Buddhist artists. His father, Kamal Dhoj Tulachan, 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 The Gandaki River, also known as the Narayani and the Gandak, is one of the major rivers in Nepal and a left bank tributary of the Ganges in India. Its total catchment area amounts to , most of it in Nepal. In the Nepal Himalayas, it is notabl ...

) area.

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 The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...

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.

Statuary

Lama Shashi's statue work can be seen at

Lumbini Lumbinī ( ne, लुम्बिनी, IPA=ˈlumbini , "the lovely") is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Lumbini Province in Nepal. It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mahamayadevi gave birth ...

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.

International exhibitions

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

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 Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. 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; 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.Togamura brochure (Japanese) n.d.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tulachan, Shashi Dhoj Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Tibetan Buddhists from Nepal Nepalese Buddhist monks Lamas