History

Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche is the traditional head of Shechen Monastery. His life is devoted to continuing the work and activities of his grandfather Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who passed into nirvana in 1991. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche worked tirelessly to preserve and make known the living traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, which included the re-establishment of the Shechen Monasteries in exile.

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Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche established the Tsering Art School at Shechen Monastery in Baudhanath, Nepal in order to continue an aspect of this work. The school first opened on the 18th March 1996. The aim of the school is to be able to provide the Tibetan and other Buddhist traditions of the world with a source of high quality sacred Buddhist painting from a pure and authentic tradition, as well as being properly executed according to the texts. This is for the purpose of the great accumulation of merit for both the sponsor of the artwork as well as for the artist, which comes about through the meeting of these two conditions, that is, the material sponsorship of the art-work of the sponsor and the creation of the artwork with pure motivation of the artist. Therefore, to create the right circumstances to enable this accumulation of merit dedicated towards the aim of enlightenment, for both those who study and work here, we are writing down these outlines and rules so that all can understand what they need to adopt and what they need to abandon. 

The guru on the crown of my head is the famed Buddhist sage Dilgo Khventse Rinnache He is renowned in the world for his incredible knowledge and realisation. He worked tirelessly to preserve the Tibetan Buddhist culture and traditions in exile and particularly he always took care of both the general and sacred art traditions of Tibet. To whomever came to him to seek advise on how to make any sacred art work, he would always advise them with the utmost care and precision, taking care not to miss any detail. Therefore if an artist took a long time to create a work of art, this would please him as he was only concerned with the quality of the artwork. 

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche particularly liked the graphic arts and painting and when he was young in Tibet and also in exile, he was very close with an exceptional artist from Surmang Monastery in Eastern Tibet called Tashi Namgyel (better known as Lhadre Tragyel). They had a close relationship as both patron and artist and as guru, disciple. In short, they were close dharma friends. This artist painted purely from the Karma Gadri tradition, which Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche himself especially favoured. This is why he ended up sending myself, Konchog, the one who is forever placed under his precious feet, to the said artist, Lhadre Tragyel and came personally with me to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim to place me under his tuition so that I would be able to learn this Karma Gadri tradition. So this is a brief history on how I came to learn this tradition of sacred art, and when I completed all the training properly and completely, as instructed by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, I then returned to serve him again as his disciple.