We Are Totally Normal

“This is a sacred art, a path which can take you to enlightenment.” When a Mongolian lama whispered these words to her, she realized she was meant to follow this path. Tiffani H. Rezende was born in Brazil in 1981. Her spiritual search took her through an alternative community, a marine life, an Australian aboriginal reserve, the Russian wilderness and finally to the Mongolia steppes, where she saw Thangka painting for the first time. She followed the suggestion from her lama to study in Dharamsala in northern India, the seat of H. H. the Dalai Lama in exile. There she was accepted as the first western student by the Norbulingka Institute and became a trained Thangka artist. Described with humour and sensibility, a daily life as an apprentice in the art of Thangka painting.