The Nepal Weekly 
May 20, 2025
The Himalayan Art Council organized a Paubha and Thangka Exhibition at the Patan Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Lalitpur. This was considered as a landmark event celebrating the artistic richness of sacred painting traditions of Nepal. The exhibition was opened on May 15 and was open to the public from May 16 and 17.
The show was a first ever effort to protect, authenticate, and elevate Nepali art on the global stage, combining tradition with trusted modern tools. Introducing a new platform that uses AI and blockchain to protect and promote Nepali art is a part of the exhibition.
The event emphasizes important aspects such as, collectors and institutions will now have a secure way to track the location, value, and history of their collections, many of which are spread across buildings and generations. The artists will be protected through AI-powered tools that detect forgeries, match unsigned work totheir likely creators, and ensure proper credit,
and The world will gain greater access to Nepali art through educational tools.
Moreover, this effort brings together artists, technologists, and cultural leaders to ensure Nepali art receives the protection, recognition, and reach it deserves.
Although this is new practice that Blockchain and AI technology has been used to preserve and identify Nepal’s original Thangka and Paubha paintings. The Himalayan Art Council, organising an event announced that more than 50 Nepali artists’ Thangka paintings have been registered on blockchain technology.
According to the council, a digital certificate and ownership record of each painting was securely registered through blockchain technology. Additionally, it is said that with the help of AI, paintings are made able to identify by analysing the artist’s original style, use of colour, and fine details.
The council has used a private blockchain system based on the ‘Cosmos Protocol’ for this. Whale says it is suitable for Nepal as it uses a cryptographic ledger system.
“What we are doing for Nepali Thangka and Paubha paintings is technically operating a private blockchain. “This means that no cryptocurrency needs to be used to execute the contract (smart contract). This system has two-party authentication (dual authentication).”
AI will be used to identify the originality of artwork and detect forgeries or imitations.
AI will help distinguish which work belongs to which artist by analysing the artist’s original style of painting, use of colour, and subtle details.
To put it more simply, although it is traditional for artists to not sign Thangka paintings, there is a specific pattern to their working style (iconography and iconometry). AI can identify that. For this, a large database of artists, artworks, and stories related to them will be created.
This platform helps artists get proper credit and recognition for their work, curators preserve the value, history, and ownership information of their collections, and the council believes in helping researchers and art lovers delve deeper into Nepali art.
In the initial phase, the council is manually registering the artwork of well-known artists on the blockchain. The council is preparing to develop a system in the future where artists can self-certify their artwork. Currently, 50 Nepali artists have participated in this process.
Himalayan Art Council through this project aims to make Nepali art more accessible worldwide through educational resources and digital storytelling.
Moreover, council states that it is committed to preserving the artistic heritage of Nepal and the Himalayan region through certification, exhibitions, and transparent tracking, fostering trust among artists, collectors, and institutions while safeguarding cultural value.
Thangka Art is a traditional form of art that represents the ancient traditions of Buddhists in Nepal. In today’s Nepalese market, Thangka has become a religious commodity as well as a souvenir flourishing the Nepalese tourist economy. Thangkas is used to spread the teachings of Buddhism by depicting the wheel of life (samsara) and interplay of religious deities in it. It is often painted on cotton or silk applique.
Thangka is unlike other forms of crafts given its religious significance. These paintings are understood as objects of devotion, an aid to spiritual practice, and apotropaic tools. While there is a variety of styles and iconography in the art form, the methods and conventions for creating such work are often highly defined and scriptural. In this blogpost, we identify and explore themes that serve as the discourse analysis of Thangka art in the first quarter of the 21st century. Starting with the intention of depth discourse analysis on Thangka painting, our project found a deviated path when historians and museums in Nepal were found to be more inclined towards Paubha painting compared to Thangka painting. While these two forms of paintings look ostensibly the same, they have important differences in their histories, style and discourses. (By R.P. Narayan)
