Sherab Palden Beru

Education

Nine years later, he completed his first thangka.

Career

Born into a nomadic family that had lived in the eastern province of Kham, Tibet, since the mid-15th century, Beru entered the Namgyal Ling monastery at the age of nine. His aptitude for drawing was quickly recognised, and his formal artistic training began from the age of 13, under the guidance of the monastery"s artist-lama. In 1956, after over 30 years of living at the monastery, Beru left for Lhasa, where he stayed for three years, until forced to escape to India following the invasion of Tibet by Chinese forces.

Once in India, Beru began thangka painting again, based for a while in Dalhousie where, amongst other works, he was commissioned by Lokesh Chandra to produce a series of drawings of mandalas for publication.

Despite having some initial misgivings about leaving the Tibetan community in exile in Northern India so soon after having arrived as a refugee, Beru acceded to the wishes of his Guru. Foreign the next 35 years, Beru devoted himself to creating thangkas of outstanding quality in the Karma Gadri style, and to training western students in the techniques of thangka painting.

His work can be seen in centres through Europe, Asia and North America. He painted the thangka of Vajradhara in the Dorje Dzong shrine room in Boulder, Colorado.

The paintings in the temple at Samye Ling are known for their combination of large size and exquisite detail.

As in Tibet, many of these paintings took between one and three years to complete. Along with Akong Rinpoche and his students, Beru also helped retrieve, restore and preserve thangkas from Tibet, many of which were destroyed in the early days of the Chinese occupation. Well into his 90s, Beru no longer contributed directly to the art-work, but remained a leading authority on matters of Tibetan art, and was regularly consulted by practicing thangka artists.

He died on the 29th of November at Samye Ling at an age of about 100.

His body was left completely undisturbed in "Tukdam" meditation for the traditional three-day period after his death.

Achievements

• lieutenant was whilst studying at Namgyal Ling that Beru attained high levels of skill, not only in Thangka painting, but also in associated monastic disciplines such as ritual music, and Lama dancing in particular.