Born in 1992 in a remote village of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Norbu was ordained as a novice monk in Bodhgaya from 2001 to 2013, where he first encountered the beauty of Buddhist wall paintings.

He later became a disciple of the Menri lineage masters at the Institute of Tibetan Thangka Art (est. 1977) in Dharamsala. After six years of rigorous traditional training, he graduated in 2018 with his teachers’ blessings to practice as an independent thangka painter. Today, Norbu receives commissions from monasteries and private collectors worldwide and teaches thangka art. He is currently based in Bir, India.