Every part of Thangkas’ making process is done by hand. Sometimes the artist will spend three hours painting a small flower. A large thangka often takes large team of artists months, even years, to make. The material used for thangkas is linen cloth or cotton fabric; silk cloth is reserved for important subjects. Before painting begins, the material is stitched along the edges with flax thread and stretched on a specially made wooden frame. Then a paste made of animal glue mixed with talcum powder is spread over its surface to block up the holes in it. When the paste is scraped off and the cloth gets thoroughly dried, the material is ready for painting. To begin, the artist works out the sketches of the images with charcoal sticks. The drawing usually begins with the figure in the centre and then goes to the surrounding deities or landscape then coloring comes last.
The pigments used come from non-transparent minerals and plants such as malachite and cinnabar. They are mixed with animal glue and ox bile to make the luster stay. When the painting is done, it is mounted on a brocaded silk border. Important thangkas are embroidered on transferred outlines; some of them use a great variety of stitch patterns such as flat and piled stitches to give them a three-dimensional effect.
Intent & in Tents
As mysterious as Shangri-la, thangkas fascinate people from all over the world. However, what is the purpose of a thangka, what use was it originally intended for?
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