Passang Tobgay

Born 1984, From Trashigang

I studied traditional Bhutanese painting from 2001 to 2006 at National Institute of Traditional Arts & Crafts in Thimphu. After graduation, I worked as a thangka artist and as an instructor at Choki Traditional Art School. I moved to Amsterdam in 2010 to study fine art at Gerrit Rietveld Academy. In 2021, I returned to Bhutan and am now working with VAST Bhutan. Since 2010, I have moved away from the traditional thangka painting practice, attempting to merge the gap between sacred and secular, iconic and ordinary, and past history and contemporary. I take inspiration from classical Bhutanese paintings and manipulate their form to create somewhat abstract forms that carry over this sense of basic goodness.

Artworks of Passang Tobgay


Strong Vitality

Dreaming of a Bird

“Entanglement”,Crystal