Art that puts culture in the picture
Thangka style from Tibet provides a unique and compelling insight in its various forms
It is not unusual to find exquisite pieces of thangka displayed in the museums of major cities. Some, though, have found the art form mysterious and difficult to understand. As an important representative of Tibetan fine arts, thangka depicts the history, culture and life of the local people and reflects cultural exchanges between the Tibet autonomous region, the rest of China, and the world.
Thangka is a “scroll painting, a painting of cloth or paper with images that can be rolled into a bundle on a scroll”, according to the Tibetan and Chinese Dictionary. In the long process of development, thangka, through the unremitting efforts of generations of painters, has given rise to different styles of paintings, such as miantang, miansa, qinzi and gamagachi. They are all rich in expression and meaning.
Thangka covers a wide range of topics, including history, politics, economy, culture, folklore, secular life, architecture, medicine, astronomy and calendar, and is known as the “Encyclopedia of Tibetan culture”. Geographically, thangka can be divided into weizang, ando and kangba, as well as exotic Nepal.
Among these areas, the style of weizang is more traditional; anduo, represented by the Regong and Labrang Monastery, is deeply influenced by the Han culture and Kangba is based on the gamagachi style of Ganzi, Sichuan province. Meanwhile, the Nepalese style of thangka is thin, like South Asian style.
In terms of material, thangka is divided into ordinary weaving, embroidery, silk and pearl, etc. The formation of the style was influenced by the art styles of Central Plains culture, Gandhara, Kashmir and Nepal. Later, through the mutual integration and digestion of the three local Tibetan painting schools of miantang, qinze and gamagachi, formed the current mainstream style of thangka. It is an art form integrated into Tibetan culture and includes the recognition of foreign culture while still following its cultural foundation.
Although the content and themes of thangka are rich and varied, the main content is the image of Tibetan folk culture. The simple painted patterns in the Karuo and Qugong cultural relics from 4,000-5,000 years ago created the precedent of thangka art. However, political, economic, geographical and other reasons have resulted in the general lack of cultural and educational institutions in Tibet. For nomadic people, thangka, with storytelling as the main content, which makes it easy to transport, is undoubtedly the best means of ensuring civilian education.
Therefore, Tibetan thangka has naturally become the carrier of civilian education, and one of the communication media of the Tibetan traditional culture, known as the “encyclopedia” of Tibet, and also a precious intangible cultural heritage of Chinese folk art.
Tibetan thangka painting is more similar to the traditional Chinese meticulous painting style that involves single-line drawing and shade rendering. The composition adopts the technique of scatter perspective and is very flat.
In oriental paintings, in-depth studies on decorative, planar, and pure color painting forms, expression forms of space, perspective and blank in composition, simple and imagistic modeling, and on the relationship between object and self and the concept of similarity and dissimilarity have been conducted. These aforementioned forms are consistent with some forms of thangka painting art.
As a painting art with unique Tibetan cultural characteristics, it differs from oil painting, printmaking, fine brushwork and other forms because only Tibetan thangka uses pure gold hook lines, such as the drawing of leaves and cassock.
The Tibet autonomous region is a cultural and social place integrated with “man, nature and society”. It has formed a unique perception of the world and space under the special environment of the plateau, and gradually formed the Tibetan view of time and space with the transmission of ethnic groups from generation to generation.
This view of time and space in turn guides the Tibetan people’s life practice and production activities, including the Tibetan people’s painting art; that is, when people draw thangka, they show their special view of time and space.
The content of thangka art is diverse, involving politics, economy, folk culture and geographical environment. The pictures are perfectly created and full of stories. The picture does not care about the relationship between distance and the size and strives for changeable composition, full picture and complete narration.
The Tibetan people believe in the circle of life and do no evil. They hope to have a good home in the circle of the afterlife by doing good deeds in this life. Moreover, the cold natural environment and the lack of resources of the Tibetan area also make people’s faith stronger.
Therefore, they choose to sincerely worship the gods and pray for auspiciousness and happiness, which makes them more careful and pious in the creation of the thangka. The art form gives them profound emotional sustenance, and whenever this emotion is evoked, they have a strong reaction and emotional resonance. That is, through the internal value identification of the thangka as the link, the culture and history are inherited further, and the ethnic cultural self-confidence is enhanced.
Tourism has an impact on thangka culture too. The arrival of tourists has deepened the communication between different cultures, and makes ideas and knowledge blend and collide. In contact with tourists, local people’s ethnic cultural identity and confidence are also constantly strengthening.
The attention to thangka culture in China and the world is constantly improving. In 2006, Tibetan thangka (miantang school, qinze school) was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list by the State Council. In 2008, the garmagaki school was included in the second batch and in 2011, the miansa school was included in the third.
The inheritance and protection of thangka art have been promoted to the national level, which not only affirms the value of the outstanding traditional Tibetan craftsmanship of the art but also greatly inspires the enthusiasm and creative motivation of its practitioners.
Now that the art is known to the world, the connotation and extension of thangka culture will be constantly enriched, which will effectively contribute to cultural confidence and cultural rejuvenation of China.
Thangka is a “scroll painting, a painting of cloth or paper with images that can be rolled into a bundle on a scroll”, according to the Tibetan and Chinese Dictionary.