Biography
Lopen Phurba Namgay
I was born in 1963 in a village called Chendipji in Trongsa, Bhutan. When I was a child, I studied Tibetan writing or Choki, and dharma with my uncle lama.
He thought I had an unusual talent for drawing, and so at 13 I went to study traditional Bhutanese painting at the Institute for Zorig Chusum, the government’s school of traditional arts in Thimphu.
After eight years there I gained an apprenticeship and eventually I became a master painter. I worked on commissions of murals in temples and monasteries all over Bhutan, but mostly at Punakha Dzong and Paro Tsang Chuiko.
In 1996 I returned to the Institute for Zorig Chusum as a teacher or lopen of thanka painting and drawing or rimo.
I specializes in commissions using hand mixed pigments, mineral paints and 24k gold. I use the traditional methods of thanka painting that include making my own canvas, paints, and brushes of natural animal hairs.
I make these rocket paintings because I like American rockets, especially Apollo 11, which went to the moon. When I was a boy in school our Indian teacher told us there were people called Americans who sent a thing called a rocket to the moon. The Americans walked on the moon! My friends and I were amazed. We thought of American rockets like people in the west might think of dragons. They were so intriguing to us and we always wondered if they were real.
Now I live in Thimphu with my wife. I restore temples and paint rockets and also paint Buddhas.