Kalsang Jorden
Tibetan, died 2006
BiographyKaljor, as he was known, practiced a variety of art forms. His primary training was in India where his parents settled after leaving Tibet. After secondary school in Mussoorie he attended the Tibetan Homes Foundation Art School for teaching many Tibetan arts including weaving, carving, and painting. Kaljor learned techniques of drawing and painting thangkas from his teacher, Jamyang Losal from Amdo, Tibet, studying with him for nearly four years.
Kaljor was a skilled colorist. He was very modest about his ability to draw the complex designs of a thangka painting, explaining that every detail of a picture is set out in Buddhist texts - all the proportions, poses, characteristics, and colors of the deities. The artist is not at liberty to change these depictions, and must spend years practicing in order to gain facility in drawing correctly. Only monks understand fully the significance and details of Buddhist doctrine, after years of studying the texts. So Kaljor's work focused on coloring, shading, and finishing a drawing outlined by his teacher. He was also experienced in preparing the cotton canvas before drawing.
For several years Kaljor lived in Nepal, apprenticing and then working as a carpet designer in a workshop where weavers made handmade rugs. He also drew and painted secular pictures featuring colorful floral designs or fantastic animals, both on paper and on walls. The traditional technique for wall painting begins with a design on paper which is held up to the wall, pierced along its lines, then dusted with dust chalk so that the outline transfers through the holes onto the wall. The design is then painted, with shading and, in special cases, gold applied.
"I wish to! I wish to go to Tibet...the Chinese, everything is under their control... We want to get our country back. We want to go there when it's independent, not under Chinese...Our Tibetan people are scattered through the four corners...My mother's sisters are all in Tibet...the worst thing is, there is no freedom. That is the worst thing. In my (astrological) calculation I was told to draw (the goddess) Tara. After the completion I go to the high lamas - lama is our Tibetan priest. Once the picture was blessed, it's like it is given a soul. So we just keep it...very sacred." Kaljor passed away in 2006.
Kaljor was a skilled colorist. He was very modest about his ability to draw the complex designs of a thangka painting, explaining that every detail of a picture is set out in Buddhist texts - all the proportions, poses, characteristics, and colors of the deities. The artist is not at liberty to change these depictions, and must spend years practicing in order to gain facility in drawing correctly. Only monks understand fully the significance and details of Buddhist doctrine, after years of studying the texts. So Kaljor's work focused on coloring, shading, and finishing a drawing outlined by his teacher. He was also experienced in preparing the cotton canvas before drawing.
For several years Kaljor lived in Nepal, apprenticing and then working as a carpet designer in a workshop where weavers made handmade rugs. He also drew and painted secular pictures featuring colorful floral designs or fantastic animals, both on paper and on walls. The traditional technique for wall painting begins with a design on paper which is held up to the wall, pierced along its lines, then dusted with dust chalk so that the outline transfers through the holes onto the wall. The design is then painted, with shading and, in special cases, gold applied.
"I wish to! I wish to go to Tibet...the Chinese, everything is under their control... We want to get our country back. We want to go there when it's independent, not under Chinese...Our Tibetan people are scattered through the four corners...My mother's sisters are all in Tibet...the worst thing is, there is no freedom. That is the worst thing. In my (astrological) calculation I was told to draw (the goddess) Tara. After the completion I go to the high lamas - lama is our Tibetan priest. Once the picture was blessed, it's like it is given a soul. So we just keep it...very sacred." Kaljor passed away in 2006.
Person TypeIndividual
