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Traditional Tibetan Art Scarce

Traditional Tibetan art is scarce and in severe threat of disappearing. This is due to a huge migration of Tibetans to the US and neighboring countries. Many of the traditional Tibetan artists fled to Nepal for safety after the 1950`s Chinese Invasion on Tibet. Now Maoist rebels threaten the refugees in Nepal and many are deciding to leave. For the last forty years most traditional Tibetan art has come from Nepal. This will soon change due to increasing pressure on the refugee Tibetan community in Nepal.

More than ten thousand buddhist have applied for political asylum in the US. Many will move to northern India where tibetan monasteries are already present. One good thing may come of this migration and that may be a new flourishing of very old art that will come with these skilled artist.

The rising tensions caused by Maoist rebels in Nepal have caused the tourist trade to almost completely dry up in Nepal. Most traditional Tibetan art and trained artist are not able to sell their art. The art has been carefully preserved in scrolls called Thangkas. Thangkas are usually painted on a 15" by 20" canvas with very bright colors and measured specifically to be recreated the same way each time they are painted. The artist themselves are usually Buddhist monks of one of the three schools of Buddhism originally from Tibet. The three are the yellow hat, the red hat and the black hat. The Dali Lama is a yellow hat but is the spititual leader of all Tibetan buddhist.