The art of Thangka
- Source: Global Times
- [21:24 March 31 2011]
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A young apprentice practices his work at an exhibition. Photos: CFP
Although he's studied for three solid years, 20-year-old Qoipei Sherab is still only capable the most basic skills of Thangka painting: line drawing and color filling. Dianzin, 20, meanwhile, is still sketching outlines just as when he started his apprenticeship two years earlier.
These two young Tibetan men are both apprentices of a Thangka workshop on the Barkhor North Street in Lhasa, working with another eight Thangka painters, including their boss, Nyima Wangdui.
With a history of over 1,000 years, Thankga is a religious painting technique with unique Tibetan characteristics. It was listed in the first roll of China's national intangible cultural heritages in 2006.
Located on the prosperous Barkhor North Street with flourishing Thangka shops, the Tashi Tagye Thangka Art Gallery is small and not particularly eye-catching. But according to its boss, Nyima, it was the first of its kind on Barkhor North Street and has been there for 12 years, seeing all the street's changes and prosperity of Thangka art.
"At first, my teacher and I worked in the Jokhang Temple on fresco remediation. After my work was finished, I opened this workshop," Nyima said. "In the early years, only Tibetans dropped by, but in the last five years, more and more tourists came to buy Thankga, including foreigners from Singapore and Britain. Nowadays, there are more Thangka shops but with more businesses, we have learned a lot more."
Today, the workshop sells roughly 70 to 80 pieces of Thangka paintings annually, most of which were ordered in advance.
An art requiring devotion, it usually takes several months or even a year to complete a fine piece of Thankga painting. All the pigments are made of natural mineral materials to keep the color from fading. The gold color is even burnished with real powdered gold. All of this results in high prices for Thangka, with the good ones priced in the tens of thousands of yuan.
Despite a decent income, Wangdui still sits in his workshop painting Thankga all day long, between answering questions from curious visitors. Wangdui's apprentices are aged between 20 to 30 something, and come from areas such as Lhasa, Maizho and Doilung in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Qoipei Sherab is the latest. His father was once a Thangka painter. Nurtured in a family with such paintings all around, he naturally fell into the habit and came to Lhasa alone at the age of 17 to learn the charming art properly.
"My teacher chose me among several kids," he said proudly. He made rapid progress in a fairly short time, largely due to his diligence.
Different from other youth of his age, he spends almost all his time learning Thangka painting. "I have no other hobby. My only dream is to become the best Thangka painter," he said in awkward Putonghua.
It seems that Thankga is largely exempt from the problem of having no inheritors that afflicts many other heritage cultures. A mature painter earns a monthly salary of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan ($610.92), attracting a lot of young people to take it up.
Now it has gone from temple to street to commercial art markets. However, with its ancient teacher-apprentice mode of teaching, the Tibetan art form remains prosperous, both culturally and commercially, while keeping its original essence.
Agencies
