In the winter of 2019, I came to Punakha Dzong to study a wall painting. The mural showed Vajradhara on a lotus throne, his body in ivory against a lapis ground — painted by Tshering Dorji in one unbroken session in 1987.
The mineral speaks first
Every pigment begins as stone. Lapis ground for weeks becomes ultramarine; malachite turns to emerald. Tshering Dorji told me the grinding itself is his prayer — before brush ever touches cotton.
The cobalt ground is not empty. It is the dharmadhatu — the infinite expanse — and every figure painted upon it descends from that boundless blue.