Horsehair thangka revives in Inner Mongolia

The craftsmanship needed to make Tibetan thangka spread to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region hundreds of years ago. The locals added a touch of their own — horsehair — to provide more texture and make the embroidery more vivid, giving an impression of a three-dimensional work. China’s only museum for horsehair thangka opened in December in Inner Mongolia’s Alxa Left Banner, with a display of more than 200 thangka made by Taogerile, 75, the leading inheritor of the art in the region, and her disciples.