Nick Dudka | The Buddhist Art of THANGKA

Nickolai N. Dudka was born on the 1-st of May, 1962 in Dessau, Germany. He received a European art education at college in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia, and at the Academy of Art in Kiev, Ukraine. His first exposure to the complex science of Buddhist religioun, philosophy and art occurred in 1986. buryatian Lama Dharmadoddi and abbot Jimba-Jamso were his first spiritual teachers. Later, Nicolai met his main spiritual master Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. At the beginning of the 1990's he began an intensive study of thangka painting with visits to Mongolia, Nepal and India. Following this was a year-long period of work and education at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) in Dharamsala, India under the guidance of Ven. Sangei Yeshe, the personal artist of HH the Dalai Lama. At present, Nicolai works as a teacher of drawing and painting of thangkas in the State Academy of Art in Ulan-Ude and continues to work in his studio. Many of his thangkas are in Buddhist Temples in Buryatia and in museums and private collections of many countries around the world.

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The thangka, or scroll painting, is a special art of Tibetan Buddhism. In ancient India, for instance, there was the Pata, Buddhist portraiture, which was executed on the kasaya (the monk's outer garment) cloth, and the Hans sometimes used silk fabric as material for paintings.

The material used for thangkas is linen cloth or cotton fabric; silk cloth is reserved for important subjects. Before painting begins, the material is stitched along the edges with flax thread and stretched on a specially made wooden frame (T. Tang-shin). Then a paste made of animal glue mixed with talcum powder is spread over its surface to block up the holes in it. When the paste is scraped off and the cloth gets thoroughly dried, the material is ready for painting. To begin, the artist works out the sketches of the images with charcoal sticks. The drawing usually begins with the figure in the centre and then goes to the surrounding deities or landscape. Colouring comes last. The pigments used come from non-transparent minerals and plants such as malachite and cinnabar. They are mixed with animal glue and ox bile to make the lustre stay. When the painting is done, it is mounted on a brocaded silk border. Important thangkas are embroidered on transferred outlines; some of them use a great variety of stitch patterns such as flat and piled stitches to give them a three-dimensional effect.

The pictorial subjects of thangkas include portraits of Buddhas, stories from the lives of saints and great masters. Thangkas are usually rectangular in shape, and the square ones are reserved for mandalas. Thangka paintings vary in size, ranging from a little over a few square centimeters to several square meters. A large thangka often takes large team of artists months, even years, to make.

News:

02.03.2008
Not often I manage to update my site. Sorry!
But any way, look at this table-standing calendar for 2008. Beautiful thangkas, large descriptions of the images and excellent quality of the print.
Look here:

09.02.2007
My dear visitors!
09.07.2007 I'm opening exhibition of my thangkas in Dzanabazar's Mustum in Ulan-Bator (Mongolia). Please, come and enjoy!

07.03.2007
Just added a few last posters. It's Dzogchen images according to instructions of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu.

02.16.2007
Losar tashi deleg!!!
All my best wishes for the New Year according to Oriental Lunar calendar! Let the year be prosperous, happy and joyful to all of you!!!

12.10.2006
Finally I've got the time to update the gallery. Here you may see all my works which I did during last two years. Visit the gallery!

04.13.2006
Just published a new calendar with some new thangkas and special days for Buddhist practices . Very good print and now it is in two languages - Russian and English.
Also a few new images and a set of cards big size.

01.08.2006
Today I added some new printings to the web-shop. Very good quality of the prints. Some images are done from my last thangkas, some others from old. Look and order here!

12.04.2005
My dear friends and customers!
Finally, I've got the possibility to add some images of my last thangkas. It is not so easy for me to find time to keep the site up to date. I spend most of the time in my studio and try to do my best with my thangkas.

Also, I'm publishing many reproductions like posters, lunnar calendars , different cards and so on but mainly in Russian. So, may be it is not so useful for you. Any way, look at the web-shop, perhaps you will find something pleasant.

08.31.2005
Now if you want to order any printing matters (posters, cards and so on) from my web-shop you can use PayPal for the payment. Please, use the following addresses: ndudka@mail.ru or zakaz@thangka.ru
I guess, this is more convenient now!

05.10.2005
Some recent photos already are in the photo gallery. Please, look it and I hope you will enjoy with them!

05.01.2005
Dear friends!
I just came back from the journey to Tibet. New places: Tsurpu - historical residents of Karmapas; Caves of Drak Yerpa - place of meditation the Great Dharma King Srongtsen Gampo, Guru Rinpoche, Palge Dorje, Jovo Atisha...
In a few days I'll put some new photos to the photo gallery.

01.09.2005
In the web-shop there is new calendar for 2005-2006.Sorry, everything is written in Russian. But to see beautiful thangkas you don't need any translations.

01.08.2005
Finally, I managed to put some photos in to photo gallery. There are pictures of my last visit of Tibet - Lhasa, Samye monastery, Chimpu caves. It was very interesting journey.

01.02.2005
Look at the set of cards #0093 where you will find different images starting from Buddha Shakyamyni and Guru Padmasambhava and going to Palden Lhamo, Tseu Marbo and Namto-srai. Mainly, all the sacred images belong to Nyingmapa and Gelugpa schools. This is in the web-shop # 0093.

12.25.2004
My dear fiends!
Marry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

The best wishes, health and love to all of you. Let the New Year brings all of you happiness, prosperity and peace.

I put some new cards in the shop and also planning to add new calendar very soon. Also now I'm upgrading my photo gallery with very lust pictures of traveling to Tibet.

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