The Enigmatic Secrets of Thangka

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Thangka, also known as Tangka or Tanka, are Tibetan Buddhist scroll paintings that are revered as a "Tibetan cultural encyclopedia." These paintings are not just religious artifacts, but also encompass history, politics, economics, culture, folklore, everyday life, architecture, medicine, astronomy, and more.

For the nomadic Tibetans who roam the vast and harsh highlands with their livestock, the rolled-up Thangka became a portable temple that they carried with them on their long journeys. In fact, Thangka are intimately linked to the fate of the Tibetan people. For the living, they serve as objects of prayer, worship, and meditation. When a loved one passes away, the family may commission a Thangka depicting the protective deities that will guide the deceased through the bardo (intermediate state between death and rebirth).

The pigments used in Thangka are another well-kept secret. All the colors are derived from the earth, either precious minerals or rare plants. The process of mixing and preparing these pigments is a slow and complex manual operation, with specific techniques and ratios passed down through generations of Thangka artists. For instance, white and yellow pigments are ground by young men, while blue and green require the gentle touch of weaker individuals.

The resulting Thangka paintings have a stunning effect, with colors that remain vibrant and unfaded over time. The use of pure gold and cinnabar (a bright red pigment) creates mesmerizing pieces like the golden Thangka or the cinnabar-and-gold Thangka, whose beauty is beyond words. The mastery of gold application is a defining technique in Thangka art, where the artist uses a polished agate or nine-eyed stone tool to repeatedly burnish the gold leaf, creating layers of shimmering luster that remain even as the painting itself fades.

A typical Thangka is created using more than 30 different pigments, derived from both minerals and plants. The mineral pigments include gold, silver, pearl, agate, coral, turquoise, malachite, cinnabar, mica, pyrite, hematite, kaolin, azurite, orpiment, realgar, and porcelain clay. The plant-based pigments come from saffron, rhubarb, indigo, lac dye, Tibetan sumac, anthocyanin, yellow lotus, and others.

The materials are sourced from various regions of Tibet and surrounding areas. For example, the azure blue pigment (known as the "treasure of Tibet") comes from the Nagqu and Xigaze regions, white pigment mostly from Naidong and Yangbajing, cinnabar from Lhokha and Nyingtri, mica from Nyingtri, and ink from Nyingchi. The extraction and refinement of these pigments, such as turning orpiment into yellow and malachite into green, are closely guarded secrets passed down within Thangka painting lineages.

Perhaps the greatest secret of Thangka lies in its unwavering adherence to tradition. Each Thangka artist sees themselves as a custodian of religious memory, responsible for faithfully reproducing the sacred iconography and canonical proportions laid out in ancient Buddhist texts. There are said to be at least eight different sets of canonical measurement systems for depicting the various poses and expressions of the Buddhist deities. The Thangka painter is not meant to be an innovator, but a conduit for preserving these timeless visual traditions.

The creation of a Thangka is an exacting and complex process, following strict rituals and instructions from scriptures and spiritual masters. It involves preparatory ceremonies, creating the painting surface, sketching the composition, applying colors, outlining the forms, gilding and silvering, eye-opening ceremonies, and final blessings. The completion of a single Thangka can take anywhere from half a year to over a decade.

The Thangka artists are known as "Lari-pa," meaning "the one who paints the Buddha or deities." They are often monks or members of hereditary artistic families, entrusted with the sacred task of manifesting the eternal forms of the divine. Each Thangka painting is seen as a process of divine reincarnation, where the artist serves as a medium for the reappearance of the sacred beings.

The Enigmatic Secrets of Thangka

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