Page 107 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

certain details were painted in gold, and the majority some blue areas at first had a rather coarse or rough
of thangkas incorporated this minimal application. appearance, so the painters polished them until
Finally, a fourth and special type is found in black and they were smooth. First the areas had to be
vermilion thangkas, where the whole composition was moistened with a little water. Then just before the
paint became dry the artists rubbed them with a
usually executed with gold line drawings, sometimes
burnisher (gzi), while holding a smooth and hard
combined with solid or shaded areas of gold.
support beneath the canvas to prevent gouging.
When the painter applied gold in fine line drawings
Azurite was burnished only on thangkas and not on
no undercoat was necessary; however, when painting
mural paintings.
larger areas a coat of yellow ochre or some similar colour
had to be laid down as the gold undercoat (gser rten). 4. One irreverent anecdote goes to the effect: Said
Since yellow ochre itself had a subdued golden hue, an the young child of the painter to the shining new
undercoat of it lessened the amount of real gold needed Buddha image just installed in the temple, "I
to achieve a rich, solid-looking coverage. For this reason recognize you! Inside you the lamas have poked a
painters nowadays continue to use such undercoats even stick, and on your face my daddy rubbed his spit!"
when applying powdered-brass imitation gold (rag rdul). (The stick referred to is the central axis-pole
inserted into the hollow center of the statue in
Other gold bases were also in use among Tibetan
preparation for consecration).
artisans, one of which was a mixture of orpiment yellow
(ba bla) and calcium white (ka rag). In addition, some 5. Some thangka painters, too, considered it sacri-
artists when painting statues made of clay and papier- legious to put a painting brush into one's mouth.
mache preferred to use a flesh-tinted base coat on the See Hugh R. Downs, Rhythms of a Himalayan
areas designated for gold paint. The artist Tshoknyi Village (New York, 1980), p.l05.
Gyatsho, for instance, made such an undercoat by
mixing yellow, white and red pigments. We also learned 6. The Tibetan term that Wangdrak used for this
of some recently painted murals in Nepal where the process of cleaning with dough was spag phyi
rgyab.
artists had first applied imitation gold over an ochre base
coat, and followed that by laying down a final layer of
real gold. This spared much of the expense of using gold
over large areas, and the effect was the same as if it had
been done completely with real gold. Here the use of a
modern acrylic medium reduced the danger of the brass
undercoat darkening beneath the gold.

Notes

1. Similes for paint consistencies that were derived
from food and drink are also found in Bo-dong,
Mkhas pa, vo1.2, pp.255, 258: ma zha tsam "just
the consistency of a'lmost coagulated yogurt,"
dar ba chu med tsam "just the consistency of
but:1:rmilk without whey," zan gran (dran) tsam
"just the consistency of warm porridge," and
skya ma tsam "just the consistency of pap or
paste. "
Wangdrak mixed his dry pigment with strong size
until it became the consistency of thick porridge
and then stirred it very thoroughly. This initial
stirring was called "pang nur" (spag snur or sbang
snur?), and he believed that it induced a good
separation of the top and bottom layers when dilute
size was stirred in and the preparation of the paint
was complete.
2. Sometimes a third brush was also used, as described
in Chapter 10.

3. The painter Wangdrak informed us that in the
past some painters of the Central Tibetan Menri
tradition used to apply the azurite paint quite
thickly to achieve the deepest blues. As a result

NOTES CHAPTER 8 103