Silk thangka and appliqué work were revived at Norbulingka Institute under the guidance of the Master Thangka Painter, Temba Chöphel, who had briefly trained under Gyeten Namgyal, the 13th Dalai Lama's Master Tailor. Later, Temba Chöphel trained as a thangka painter, but he never forgot the sewing skills he had acquired earlier. He understood how beneficial it would be for the appliqué artists to undertake the same basic training as a thangka painter before beginning to sew, for this would make them less dependent on the thangka painters. This training programme started in 2003.