Najar Man Lama

As devotional art forms often become unseen through migration, the permanent exhibition of Najar Man Lama offers an introduction to thangka painting — a sacred Himalayan tradition shaped by centuries of spiritual and artistic transmission across Tibet, Nepal, and northern India. From the Tibetan word for "recorded message", a thangka is a scroll painting made on cotton using mineral pigments. These paintings serve as aids for meditation, ritual, and teaching, and remain central to both Tibetan and Nepalese cultural life.

This exhibition presents thangka through the work of Najar Man Lama (1963-2017), a Nepalese painter who sustained his practice in this very factory. In 2005, Lama arrived in Malaysia as a wood worker during Nepal's civil war. But his artistic skill was soon recognized, and he was encouraged by factory co-owner Tan Kai Lek to dedicate himself fully to his painting. Over the next decade, Lama continued to create thangkas using traditional methods and devotional memory. Upstairs, what once was private becomes visible — an invitation into a practice quietly carried.