What is Thangka? What's the point?

Thangka, also called Thangka, is a transliteration of Tibetan, which refers to a religious scroll painting mounted with colored satin and hung for worship. Thangka is a unique painting art form in Tibetan culture, and its theme covers many fields such as Tibetan history, politics, culture and social life. Thangka handed down from ancient times is mostly Tibetan Buddhism and local teachings.

Thangka is a unique painting art form in Tibetan culture. It has distinctive national characteristics, strong religious color and unique artistic style, and depicts the sacred Buddhist world with bright colors; Traditionally, all precious mineral gems such as gold, silver, pearls, agate, coral, turquoise, malachite and cinnabar, as well as plants such as saffron, rhubarb and indigo are used as pigments to show their sacredness.

Thangka, based on Buddhist content, must be hidden and illuminated. On the back of Thangka, the head, neck and heart of the Buddha were written in Sanskrit with a red pen, and the Lama was asked to recite the scriptures to show his illumination. Many thangkas have hidden characters written in red ink on the back, indicating that these thangkas have been hidden and enshrined by temples or private living buddhas since their completion.

Extended data:

Historical origin:

Thangka is a painting form introduced from India with Buddhism. It was put forward by Italian scholar Du Zi. He believes that Thangka originated from the ancient Indian religious cloth painting "Botuo" and was introduced to Tibet with Buddhism.

The difference between Boto's painting and Han's painting mainly lies in the canvas. Han paintings are mostly paper and silk, while Botuo is mainly cotton cloth, which is consistent with Thangka canvas. In addition, in Thangka painting, Datura is painted as a square canvas, and the aspect ratio of Buddha canvas is 4:3, which is the same as Botuo.

2. China scholar Xie Jisheng proposed that Thangka was influenced by paintings in the Central Plains. He pointed out in the article "The Origin of Thangka": "Thangka itself does not come from India. In fact, its development and evolution process is consistent with the formation and evolution process of scroll painting in the Central Plains from Han and Tang Dynasties to Song and Yuan Dynasties. It originated in Dunhuang, where Tibetan and Han people have close contact, and evolved from Tibetan banner painting along the road of Buddhist painting. "