Firstly, a thangka painting is not simply a decoration or a creation of beauty, but a religious object and a medium for expressing Buddhist ideals. These works of art function as models on which the practitioner can reflect and meditate. By meditating on such objects, one can train the mind and gain an understanding of certain types of awareness that specific image portrays. Other reasons for commissioning a thangka painting may be to bring about good health, prosperity or long life.
Secondly, does the concept of artistic intent apply to thangkas? Only rarely do thangkas express the personal vision or creativity of the painter, and for that reason thangka painters have generally remained anonymous as have the tailors who made their mountings. There is a vast amount of iconographic information provided in thangkas, some of it literally spelled out. If being watched closely, many thangkas spell identification of figures and scenes in formal and delicately rendered scripts.
Thangkas were important articles of the tent culture of nomadic monastic groups in medieval Tibet. Nomadism was good for the people but intensely harmful for the thangkas. Rolling and unrolling was, and still is, unavoidably damaging for thangkas.
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