Nepal, March 22 -- On most days the district of Dolpa is under a thick coat of snow. To the inhabitants their lives are lived in monocolor. Tenzin Norbu, however, grew up with colors, lots and lots of it. His family has been painting for five generations, probably even more. His earliest memory of painting was at the age of eight, and it was all because of his father.

As a child he was fascinated by the small corner of color his father created and spent hours admiring his father's detailed work. In the mandalas that his father made, the focus only ever was on the deity. But for Tenzin, it was the corners of the mandala that held the allure, the corners where small scenes of daily life and subtle hints of stories were painted. And he knew...