CELEBRATING A TIBETAN HERO KEEPING THE ANCIENT ‘KARMA GAR-DRI’ ART ALIVE IN CONTEMPORARY TIBET: Verses of Praise to 90-year old Karma Deleg, master thangka painter by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

“Artisan with creative dexterity in the snowy land [Tibet]’s ancient arts,
The Je’u Gang, Men-dri, Khyen tradition and so on.
Wish-fulfilling jewel of the beautiful forms of manifold Victors,
The one who accomplished beauty (eye-nectar) beyond calculation.
In particular, the Great Encampment [Garchen]’s single worldly ornament,
Praised and renowned in extensive directions,
The painting tradition of forms of appearance and existence,
That takes away the puffed-up ‘creator’.”

སྔོན་བྱོན་གངས་ཅན་བཟོ་བོའི་འདུ་བྱེད་རྩལ། །བྱེའུ་སྒང་ལུགས་སྨན་བྲིས་མཁྱེན་ལུགས་སོགས། །
རབ་འབྱམས་རྒྱལ་བའི་མཛེས་སྐུ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར། །མིག་གི་བདུད་རྩིར་བསྒྲུབས་པ་བགྲང་ལས་འདས། །
ཁྱད་པར་སྒར་ཆེན་འཛམ་གླིང་རྒྱན་གཅིག་ཅེས། །སྙན་པའི་གྲགས་པ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་རྒྱས་པ་ལས། །
སྣང་སྲིད་གཟུགས་སུ་འགོད་པའི་རི་མོའི་སྲོལ། །བྱེད་པོའི་ཁེངས་པ་འཕྲོག་པ་དེ་ཡང་བྱུང་། །
— 17th Karmapa, excerpt from Verses of Praise to Karma Deleg

“We need to understand is that the the Karma Gar-ri style of painting became an exceptional Tibetan style, developed within the Karma Great Encampment (Garchen) under the instructions of the Karmapas and their Heart Sons. It emerged as a new Tibetan artistic style augmenting earlier Tibetan art forms with techniques and styles from other cultures. Due to the Gyalwang Karmapas and their heart sons, it spread widely and continues to this day.  So it is an artistic style that came from the Encampment (the Gar-ri, the Encampment painting style).”

—17th Karmapa on the Karma Gar-dri style of painting

Today, for the Dharma Protector’s Day (29th of the lunar month), I offer this translation of the beautiful, poetic verses composed by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa in celebration of the 90 year old Tibetan thangka painter, Karma Deleg. The verses were posted on the 30th July, on the 17th Karmapa’s FB page.  At the end of the verses, the 17th Karmapa writes:

“Holder of the Karma Gar-dri national, intangible cultural inheritance, Great Master (Lopon) Karma Deleg Chog, from the་ age of 78 until now the age 90, without a care for the many difficulties, has worked to maintain and preserve the flourishing of the tradition of Karma Gar-dri.  He not only generated the means for providing for hundreds of student resources without cost, food, clothing, sleeping quarters, but also, one after the other, for Tshurphu, Karma Gon, Lhateng, Zurmang and others, was the leader of workshops for creating thangkas and wall painting murals.

In order to introduce people to the unmistaken Karma Gar-Dri traditions, he composed diagrams and explanations called The Appearance of the Sun of statues both carved and painted in the Gar tradition style.

In particular, I rejoice in his superior/altruistic attitude of making efforts to continue the preservation and maintenance of the unmistaken culture of Garchen (Great Encampment), and the strength of heart which resulted in these incomparable accomplishments/deeds.

These days, in accordance with the times, to celebrate the deeds of the teacher, with a mind of extreme devotion for ‘Tibetan paintings/art’, the one with the mere name Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje exclaimed this on the 30 July 2023, with a mind of total joy. May this aspiration be virtuous!”

In the Verses, the 17th Karmapa not only praises the talent and activities of the 90 year old Tibetan artisan and painter in Tibet, but also praises the Karma Gar-ri tradition, as the Karma Kagyu’s ‘sole worldly ornament’ that ‘takes away/robs the ‘puffed-up creator’, seemingly referring to the increasing need of Tibetan artists to be known and praised. 

Before reading the 17th Karmapa’s verses, I had never heard of Karma Geleg and his work. The 17th Karmapa has taught extensively about the Karma Gar-ri Style before though, see below. However, a Google search showed that the Chinese media has been reporting his excellent work in Tibet in preserving the heritage of thangka painting art, in particular that of the Karma Gar-dri style (for more on that, see the HAR page about the style here).  In one Chinese news article in 2020 about the painter, it states that:

A training base of ethnic handicrafts making was set up in Kabma Township by the 88-year-old Karma Deleg, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage Karma Gardri, which is a genre of thangka painting. At present, a total of 460 apprentices study thangka painting here.

As you can see in the photos below from that article (and the video), Karma Deleg looks like a man doing what he was born to do and helping others too. His old hands showing the lines of experience, wisdom, craft and age, like a precious old thangka canvas.

Whether one calls the Karma Gar-dri painting a tradition or style, it is inspiring and moving that the 17th Karmapa is bringing to our awareness the great talent and living efforts of Tibetans in Tibet who are doing all they can to keep the Tibetan literary, cultural and artistic heritage alive, despite the many challenges they face living in Chinese-controlled Tibet. The real-life heroes of the Tibetan struggle for cultural preservation, identity, and freedom are often not so well-known, yet their daily work and efforts to help others are a bright light of hope in the darkness of dictatorial controls and rule. In this article, I share some photos of Karma Deleg and his activities in Tibet, an overview of the Karma Gar-ri style and the 17th Karmapa’s recent teachings on it, as well as a translation of the Verses themselves for those who would like to get a sense of their meaning in English (which I translated alone, so apologies for any errors in meaning!).

May the arts and culture of ancient Tibet and Vajrayana flourish and prosper! For more articles on art, see here. Music? On today, Indian Independence Day Songs about India by the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, Let’s Return to Homeland by Tsewang Norbu, Work of Art by Demi Lovato, and If by Bread.

Written and translated by Adele Tomlin, 15th August 2023.

Karma Deleg, 90 year-old artisan and painter in Chamdo, Tibet

Xinhua also posted a beautiful video with their article about Karma Geleg and the crafts institution,  see here:

The Karma Kagyu , 17th Karmapa and the Karma Gar-dri style

In 2022, the 17th Karmapa (an expert and talented artist and thangka painter himself) gave extensive teachings on the pre/earlier and post- Karma Gar-dri styles. For a full transcript of those teachings, see here and here. The Karmapa’s view is that it is more correct to use the term Karma Gar-ri (karma sgar ris) for the pictorial style and Karma Gar-Dri (karma sgar bris)  for the distinctive calligraphic style of Karma Garchen (Great Encampment) and that:

“We need to understand is that the the Karma Gar-ri style of painting became an exceptional Tibetan style, developed within the Karma Garchen under the instructions of the Karmapas and their Heart Sons. It emerged as a new Tibetan artistic style augmenting earlier Tibetan art forms with techniques and styles from other cultures. Due to the Gyalwang Karmapas and their heart sons, it spread widely and continues to this day.  So it is an artistic style that came from the Encampment (the Gar-ri, the Encampment painting style).”

“The two founders of the Karma Gar-ri style were Namkha Tashi (Sprul-sku-nam-mkh’a-bkra-shis (1500s) and Yarto Tulku Pende (dkon-mchog-phan-bde). These days, it’s said that Konchog Tulku Pende from E or Ye (g.Ye) was the art teacher of Namkha Tashi, but his role in the development of the style is not well known.”

Generally, there are three types of ‘Karma Gar-ri’ tradition painting styles or periods: early, middle and late. The early is in reference to Namkha Tashi (16th century) [1]. The middle period with reference to [10th Karmapa] Choying Dorje (17th century) and the late with reference to Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne (18th century) and his artistic production. The 17th Karmapa considers all these periods (and more) in his teaching, including those outside of the Karma Kagyu lineage. 

The 17th Karmapa (2022) also spoke about the early Karma Gar-ri paintings of the Gyaltsab Rinpoche lineage:

“There were several early thangkas in Gar-ri style depicting the Gyaltsab lineage, painted during the time of Gyeltsab Rinpoche. One of the main early thangkas depicting the 6^th Gyaltsab Rinpoche, Norbu Sangpo is by one of his students, probably Gelong Rinchen Sangpo. These are among the oldest/earliest paintings in the Karma Gar-ri style.”

8th Tai Situ Penchen and the ‘Later’ Karma Gar-ri style

The 17th Karmapa explained in his 2022 teachings that: 

“In the 18^th century, Situpa Panchen, Chokyi Jungne was a figure well versed in all fields of knowledge, studied painting and arts thoroughly and restored and helped propagate the Karma Gar-ri style and had a great influence on it. I do not have much time to show these today but there are many examples. I should start to research this now so I can present something next year.”

The Tibetan scholar, Tashi Tsering, wrote a fascinating article about Situ Penchen and the Karma Gar-ri style in JIATS 2013 here: 

“A classification more directly connected with Si tu’s legacy identifies three categories among the works produced in his style. One, namely phyag bstar/phyag bdar, or “drawn by himself,” refers to the paintings by Si tu. The next, namely zhal bkod, or “painted under his supervision,” refers to the work of disciples under Si tu paṇ chen’s personal direction. The last, namely dpe ltar/lugs ltar, or “according to the style,” are replica thang kas of Si tu and his disciples’ paintings.”

Here is a Karma-Gar-dri style painting from the Palpung tradition of the great Tibetan translator and master, Marpa:

17th Karmapa’s Verses to Commemorate the 90 year old, Karma Geleg, talented Karma Gar-dri thangka painter and his activities in Tibet

Endnotes