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:
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, 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 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.

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.
Gompa/ Mani LocationDateDetailsSchool
smad Kyi Lha K'anKobang1960assisting his father Kamal Dhoj Tulachan, new frescos
Mani Lha K'an Gemi 1961-1962First solo commissionsMon Bris
Rani Gompa 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 Thilim, Gemi 1963, 1991sMon Bris
Utse Gompa Geling 1975sMon Bris
Narsang Gompa Khanti1960, 1975main chapel walls, entire fresco removed and repainted
Tashi Cholin 1989, 1991gompa founded by Globo mKhenchensMon Bris
Don gNak Seng-se Chilin -new Kyipar Gompa Tukuche 1986, 1988sMon Bris
Chhairo Gompa Chhairo 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.

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. Four 4 metre by 4 metre Mandala Thangkas were painted in Toga mura, Toyama prefecture over 18 months in 1988 and 1989.
The themes of the four mandalas are of:
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.