Thangkas are a special buddhist art that consist of very precise paintings of Buddha and buddhism scenes and always starts from geometrical patterns.  In Shangri-La city of Yunnan province, India-born Chinese Dakpa Kelden, who used to be a buddhist monk and studied tourism management in Australia, is the main founder of the Thangka Center and the Shangri-La association of cultural preservation of Shangri-La county.

The Thangka Center, or the Gyalthang Association of Culture Preservation, was founded in 2005 and gives young people the opportunity to study the Tibetan art of Thangka painting. All teachers are very experienced Thankga masters. Tourists can come for a few hours or days to discover this art for a fee, while some students who hope to be become Thangka masters stay for free for several years and offer their work to the center in return. The profits that come from the selling of their work are used for developing the school and for charity projects. Every year, the school welcomes around 10,000 short term student as well as six to seven permanent students.

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY CECILE ZEHNACKER

Source: China Pictorial