History of Karma Gadri style
Karma Gadri is a painting style as well as a method of thangka painting used in Karma Kagyu school, which was founded by the 8th Karmapa Mikyö Dorje (1507-1554).

A thangka means a scroll painting and it originated from traditional Chinese method of painting on silk.
The 8th Karmapa was once given such a painting. There was a portait of the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339) on it. During his stay at the Chinese ruler, the Third Karmapa inspired one artist to such extend that he made a portrait of his.
The first teacher of the Eighth Karmapa was also of Chinese origin and he was representing a very famous painting style called Karma Menhri, form which the Eighth Karmapa later developed Karma Gadri style.

Gadri means a camp, because at that time Karmapa was travelling with all his servants, and they based camps at various locations, and often stay there for several weeks.
Later he shared his experiences with others and this activity became a part of the transmission and maintained until today. Many of the Karmapas, Shamaras and Jamgon Kongtruls were real masters of painting and sculpture, but it was not their main activity, and thus they passed on their experience to gifted artists who excelled in this area.

Denzong Norbu
Denzong Norbu from Sikkim is one of the artists who were given the transmission for Karma Gadri style thangka painting by the Sixteenth Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (1924 – 1981).

He was working by his side for 30 years and is known for his devotion to dharma and to the Sixteenth Karmapa. Even nowadays, being 74 years old, he is still actively spreading this activity and passing it on to his students in the West.

Thanks to the support of the Czechs and Slovaks I had the opportunity to become one of the main students of Denzong Norbu and spend three years with him. These three years were very important to me and completely changed my life and gave me a clear goal. Together with the whole team I am currently trying to develop this activity in our centres.

Karma Gadri as a method
When talking about Karma Gadri, we use a word style, because in the West we are used to distinguishing between certain artistic styles. In the case of Karma Gadri, the 8th Karmapa left us a method, thanks to which our everyday activities and our formal practise become inseparable.
There are various consecutive techniques included in the process of thangka and staues painting, which help us with our formal practise. From calming our mind and generating six paramitas to identification with the Buddha forms and qualities of our Lama.
That´s way it is so important that the artists who paint the thangkas and statues for the Karma Kagyu lineage have the transmission and contact with our lineage, know our methods and are in contact with our sangha.

Projects
As our sangha is growing, mainly through the activity of Lama Ole Nydahl and the idealism of most of you, so is growing need of good quality statues and thangkas for our centres.
And because there are just a few qualified artists in our centres, we organise statue painting and filling courses, where you can learn more about the meaning and the quality of statues.

We are also preparing a thangka course painting, where you can find out more about Karma Gardi style, about the symbolism of thangkas and you can try the thangka painting for yourself.

From preparation of canvas and the coulours ( mineral pigments, which are important for Karma Gadri school, and are a part of the transmission) and sketching to the process of painting itself.

It depends individually on each of you in which part of the process you want to take part and how fast you will be improving.