The art of Tibetan Thangka Painting
Contributed by Karma Tsedup

A Thangka is a painted or embroidered banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and carried by lamas in ceremonial processions. In Tibetan the word 'than' means flat and the suffix 'ka' stands for painting. The Thangka is thus a kind of painting done on flat surface but which can be rolled up when not required for display. The most common shape of a Thangka is the upright rectangular form.

The Tibetan ( Thangka or Thangku  ) means flat or plain image .Some of them relate Thangka with Tang Dynasty or Si Tang i.e. Panda a Tibetan word which means alike langoor, which seem irrelevant to relate Thangka with Tang Dynasty according to my knowledge. There are several major different styles of Thangka schools in Tibet, Such as Mendri, Karma Kardri, Tsangdri, Beldri, Gyadri etc.The style of thangka painting developed by Menlha Dondup is known to be Mendri which is most popular and well known among all styles. According to Anal Bendra-ya-i-sel written by Desi Sanggye Gyatso  mentioned that, there are three styles of school during that time. These styles differ in the way how they portray the background scenery, ornaments, flexibility and the attire of the painted figures. The image of thangka painting is used for visual Support in meditation by those who have received initiation and instruction from eminent masters. The images in the thangka represent state of consciousness’ like compassion and wisdom. Meditate and visualize to facilitate inner transformation of the practitioner.Thangkas are an integral part of The Tibetan Mahyana tradition of Buddhist for centuries’.

Thangka comes in to many different folds,

Tsel-thang: which means red thangka, is painted with gold, silver and colours on a red canvas.
Ser-thang is a thangka painted with a silver and colours on a golden canvas.
Nak-thang is a thangka painted with gold, silver and colours on a black base canvas.
Lhendap-thangka which is patch stitched thangka.
Tsem-tuk-thangka which is made of embroidery

A  brief description of  Menlha Dhondup; He left his birth place Lhodrak Menthang at early age in search to fulfill His desire to learn Tibetan Thangka  painting. Later he got acquainted with the master Dopa Tashi and he became his teacher and Menlha Dhondup successfully accomplished his grasp of being an artist. Since then his style of expertise flourished all four corners of Tibet. Thangka artists are highly respected in Tibet. Basic painting technique differ region to region, Training of the artist and the capability to purchase gold and expensive pigments and so on.
financially poor bright students would be employed as an assistant of the master artist. Many of these students would gain immense knowledge through the masters. It’s a good way to get recognition and to obtain proper techniques to produce perfect quality Thanka.

Thangka  painting is mainly religious painting. To become a  perfect in this field you should learn not only how to paint or how to make different brushes, you must play a role of alchemist ,i.e. mixing and extracting pigments from various stones and organics. It is a strenuous and time consuming job, Artists are obliged to follow very intricate iconometric set up rules and highly geometrical principles, It’s also essential to know the theological background meaning of these hundreds and thousand of peaceful and wrathful aspects of Buddhas ,Bodhisatvas, there are hundreds of scriptures to refer.

Tibetan Thangka paintings are done on cotton canvas or silk, The process of making thangka canvas would last one or two days depending on the condition of the weather .To produce good
Quality thangka,the canvas must not either too smooth nor rough. Making thangka canvas is a quite complicated task. The right quantity of distemper, glue and water can produce perfect canvas.i.e if you add lot of glue in the gouge, The canvas will start cracking or the colour will start pealing off from the canvas and it will cause permanently irreversible damage to the thangka. The impact could be severe and there are lots of precaution and responsible for the artist to prevent such incidence.

Thangkas are not merely paintings, The Contribution of the tailor mounting silk brocade are very important factor to produce beautiful piece of art or an object of faith. Combination of beautiful thangka and nice brocade would produce a perfect and appealing thangka, Below the thangka there is a beautiful silver knob to hang it straight.

There are three types of major brushes, Each of these are made of animal hairs i.e. finest hair of fox, cat and goat, These three types of  brushes are (jug pir) this is used to apply and fill
up the colours, This brush comes in many seizes, another brush is (Dang Pir ). This is used to shade the flowers, clouds etc. The final brush is called ( Ched Pir ) it is used to paint linings on the edge of the drawing. It is made very thin and fine for particular purpose.

Making charcoal pencil is another tricky task and it must burn with special techniques otherwise
It will turn in to unusable twisted product.
Gold scratching equipment is made of fine smooth sharpened onyx by artist themselves. It is used to produce shiny ornaments and sparkling radiance surrounding the deities.

Tibetan pigments are made from different variety of stone such as lapis lazuli, turquoise, oxide, indigo etc Also many are organic products like drakshun and pangma as well as from different flowers. To extract essence of these stones and plants, The expertise is very important of (know how) or technique was taught and passed from generation to generation. Most of these pigments are domestically made by artist themselves,
According to many Tibetan scriptures, It is mentioned that there are four major colours, i.e. blue, yellow, white and red, by mixing all these four pigments you can produce countless shades
of colours.
The animal hide glues or bio glue is extracted by the artists themselves. The secret of making gold leaf and refined gold tablets were ambiguously kept secret. Due to that many of our old tradition were unfortunately perished along with the expert themselves and caused damage to society in large.

There are several Thangka painters in Toronto and they do this on the side as there is less demand for them here in the west.