Tep Nimit Mak

CAMBODIA

Tep Nimit Mak was a renowned Cambodian artist who was active between the late 19th and early 20th century. He was known to have led his disciples in the painting of numerous mural paintings, in addition to receiving sponsorship from the king.
Murals painted by Tep Nimit Mak include the Life of the Buddha and several Jataka tales, including Jataka of the Naga King, Prince Vessantara Jataka, and Maha Ummagga Jataka, in Wat Sisowath Ratanaram in Phnom Penh and the main hall of Wat Kampong Tralach Leu in Kampong Chhnang, as well as the murals along the corridor of the Silver Pagoda. These murals are considered classical Cambodian mural paintings.
In 2006, the heads of the British Library in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia discovered an exquisite sketch book with pencil drawings of scenes from Reamker, the Cambodian version of the Sanskrit poem Ramayana. Because of the likeness to Tep Nimit Mak’s original paintings, the drawings are thought to be his work. Although no such exact paintings based on these sketches have been found in Cambodia, it is believed that these drawings are the drafts of several other large-scale mural paintings of Cambodia.