The Second Coming Of Buddhist Art

Leh’s Matho Monastery Restores Centuries-old Thangka Paintings to Their Past Glory

- Prachi Joshi

Ishey and Angmo bend their heads over a 2x1-foot piece of silk cloth adorned with a painting. With skilled hands, they use brushes to bring to life its vibrant blues, greens, and reds. The cloth’s border is aged yellow and the painting they are restoring is nothing short of a historical treasure—a 17th-century thangka with a centrepiece of a lama imparting his teachings, while the Buddha smiles down on him benevolently.

I’m at the 15th-century Matho Monastery near Leh, lodged high up in the Stok range of the Himalayas, overlooking the Indus River. The monastery was founded in 1410 and belongs to the Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It’s a sunny summer afternoon in early July but the monastery is quiet; unlike the popular Thiksey Monastery located almost directly opposite across the Indus valley, Matho Monastery is off the tourist trail in Ladakh. But the three-storey Matho Monastery Museum (MaMoMu) in its compound, slated to open in the summer of 2018, could change that.