Prominent thangka painter Tenpa Rabten, 82, has died in Lhasa, reports Radio Free Asia. Rabten was one of the artists who designed the imagery for the Tibetan currency notes used in Tibet before China’s invasion. He painted thangkas – the Tibetan traditional religious art form – and taught hundreds of students. Buchung Nubgya, a Tibetan living in New York, said to RFA, “His passing is an irreparable loss for Tibetan tradition.”