Glen Eddy, reknowned Thanka painter and founder of the Golden Vajra Guild at the Shang Shung Institute in America passed away on April 5.2006 in Cordoba, Argentina. Glen was among the first Westerners fully trained in traditional Tibetan thanka painting using handmade mineral paints and other methods. For over thirty years, his deity drawings have been widely published in early works by the late Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987) and Choegyal Namkhai Norbu, his primary Buddhist master and founder of the Shang Shung Institutes.In recent years, he experimented with watercolor and mixed media producing exquisite non-traditional works of Tibetan deities from the lineage of Choegyal Namkhai Norbu, including Tara, Goma Devi, and Mandarava. At the time of his death, he was working on a step by step manual on Tibetan art, "The Treasury of Luminious Manifestations." A gallery of recent paintings is available on the Shang Shung Institute in America website. Clen was cremated on April 9, 2006.
Photo credit: Ellen Pearlman
