Ian Alexander Douglas Alsop

Ian Alexander Douglas Alsop passed away peacefully, surrounded by his wife and children, on December 30, 2025, in Santa Fe, NM, after a brief illness.

Born on July 28, 1947, in Washington, D.C, the son of Stewart and Patricia Alsop, Ian graduated from the Groton School (1965) and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College (1969). Following graduation during the turbulent sixties, Ian traveled to Vietnam as a reporter for the Northern Virginia Sun. He spent a few months on the ground and in the air writing articles on the war. Instead of returning home, he continued to India and Nepal, where he spent the next eighteen years. In Kathmandu, he met and began a lifelong partnership with Lois Ellen Kullen Alsop.

Ian felt at home in the Himalayas and began his journey as a lover of the region’s art, language, and culture. He began by commissioning Tibetan woodblocks of exquisite workmanship from master draftsmen and carvers and printing them on handmade paper. He soon became fascinated with the Newars, the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley who produced the vibrant mandala of Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture. Immersing himself in the ancient traditions of lost-wax bronze casting and mineral-pigment painting techniques, he became a friend and supporter of the artists who revived these arts.

Fluent in the Newari language, Ian was a founding member of the Asa Archives, a manuscript preservation project named after the father of his Newari teacher, Prem Bahadur Kansakar. Ian and Prem established the Nepal Bhasa Dictionary Committee and, with the support of the Toyota Foundation of Japan, published the first Dictionary of Classical Newari, compiled from manuscript sources. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for his contributions to Nepal studies.

When Tibet opened to individual travelers in 1985, Ian left for the Roof of the World. This was the first of many visits to Lhasa and the Tibetan Plateau, where he studied mural paintings and sculpture in remote monasteries and pilgrimage sites.

In 1988, Ian moved with his family to Santa Fe and a year later opened the Peaceful Wind Gallery. In the early 1990s, Ian became the founder, editor, and publisher of an on-line journal of Asian art (asianart.com), which has become the leading resource for scholarly articles and research in the field of Himalayan art and culture. He continued to travel to Asia annually, and while In Tibet, he met the young contemporary artists of the Gedun Choephel Artists’ Guild and became an enthusiastic promoter of their innovative painting styles internationally.

Ian loved the skies of New Mexico, which reminded him of Tibet. His brilliant wit, diamond mind, irresistible charm, and humility will be remembered by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife, Lois, his children, Vajra and Vasundhara, daughter-in-law Arlene Ayunting, granddaughter Louisiana, and his Alsop siblings Joseph, Elizabeth, Stewart, Nick, Andy, and their extended families.

Donations in Ian’s memory may be made to the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust earmarked “Itum Paintings Project” (kvptnepal.org) or to the Santa Fe Children’s Museum (santafechildrensmuseum.org).

Please share your memories of Ian on the full obituary at riverafamilyfuneralhome.com.