What is the origin of Tibetan mural Thangka?

Thangka is a Chinese transliteration of thang-ga in Tibetan, which means scroll painting. Whether it is made of paper or cloth, embroidered or silk, patchwork or patchwork, whatever it is painted, as long as it can be consistently rolled up for collection or appreciation, it can be called Thangka.

Thangka originated from the painting banners in ancient India, and the original prototype appeared in the western regions, such as the Buddhist scriptures in Mogao Grottoes. Later, when Buddhism Vajrayana was introduced to Tibet, Master Lotus Peanut went deep into the mainland and made good use of the convenience, lightness and portability of painting banners to promote Buddhism. Other mages followed suit, and public display of Buddha statues and lectures became the main ways for the guru to communicate with believers. People learn the Buddhism of Buddha and Bodhisattva by drawing banners, thus making Thangka one of the unique religious painting arts in Tibetan Buddhism.

Many friends born in 1970s must remember vividly the illustrated story and reasonable reading materials of Picture Book. In the early days of enlightenment, this way of combining pictures and texts was more acceptable and impressive to the audience. Master Lotus Peanut must have discovered this memory rule. I choose this picture book to spread my teachings, and Buddhist scriptures are the text parts in that picture book. At this time, Thangka is forbidden to buy and sell. Generally, only disciples who are favored by the guru can be invited to go home and hang up.

When Buddhism was widely spread in Tibet, the main function of Thangka was transformed into a tool for Buddhists to visualize and practice, and practitioners faced Thangka to visualize, realize bodhicitta and practice fruit. In the field of non-Buddhism, Thangka is widely used as an exquisite handicraft bearing history and culture. So at present, what we can see about Thangka is generally divided into three categories: religion, historical legends, encyclopedia of life (astronomical calendar, medical atlas, divination, etc. ).

In the process of inheritance, Thangka has also widely absorbed the arts and crafts characteristics of the surrounding areas, which are mainly divided into the following five styles: Indian style; Nepali style (diana and Bengal); Kashmir style (Gukari and Ladakh); Central Asia and western style; China kangqu style. At present, China Tangka is mainly composed of Miantang Painting School and Karma Kaju Painting School. Although the school of painting is different, the style of painting can be innovated, but the unit of measurement of law must not be arbitrarily modified. We must strictly control the measurement law and proportion of sculpture.