Page 118 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

One important step in the preparation of lac dye the painter needed the colour immediately, he could
mentioned by all artists was the addition of a leaf or two produce some of it from crude lac as described above
of the zhu mkhan tree to the water in which the lac was and then apply it directly, without having to wait for
heated. These leaves, according to the artists, greatly it first to dry completely.
facilitated the rendering of the dye into solution and The Preparation of Lac Lake as Described by
they were also thought somehow to fix or make perma- Mi-pham-rgya-mtsho
nent the colour of the dye.
To supplement the above account derived from
A number of different plant leaves were called
interviews with living Tibetan painters, it is interest-
zhu mkhan in Tibetan medicine,4 but the zhu mkhan
ing to compare the following description of the pre-
most commonly used in Central and Southern Tibet for
paration of lac lake from the pen of Mi-pham-rgya-
preparing lac dye seems to have been the leaves of a tree mtsho:
in the genus Symplocos. 5 Trees of this genus were com-
mon, for instance, in the forests of the Eastern
[Take some] yellow dye decoction of the leaf
Himalayan foothills. The bark and leaves of the species
of zhu mkhan (a tree of the genus Symplocos)
Symplocos racemosa (the lodh tree), a species occurring
which has been made by warming [water and
at lower elevations, are said to yield a yellow dye,6 and
leaf] in the sun. And having poured some finely
a concoction of the leaves of the same tree are also said
pulverized crude lac dye (rgya tshos or rgya
to have been employed as a mordant? Whatever the
skyegs) into it, grind the liquid mixture.
exact species, the leaves from this tree were best
gathered in the autumn, when the concentration of dye If you boil it over a fire [the dye] will become
in the leaves was at its peak. dark brown in colour. If one grinds it in the shade
the dye will not come into solution. Therefore,
it is best to put it in the sunlight and [thus] warm
it.
In order to extract the dye, if one adds a little
rgya tsha (sal ammoniac)8 the dye will come out
quickly and it will become red. If one adds tsha
la'i sbu ba (a borax compound or solution?) [the
colour] will be brilliant and permanent.
If [when preparing lac dye] one does not have
time to leave it in the sun for a long time, boil
some tea leaves in clean water and into that, in a
cup, pour some crude lac that has been finely
Nowadays some Tibetan dyers in Nepal use the pulverized in some zhu mkhan leaf solution. It is
leaves of Indian Cassia (Cinnamomum tamala) in the also possible to warm and grind the lac dye in
preparation of lac dye, calling it zhu mkhan. Leaves boiled water. 9
of this plant are also effective 'in some kinds of dyeing,
but the correct Tibetan nomenclature for the tree is Painters who followed the above method would
shing tsha. In Hindi and Nepali its name is tejpat. have produced the pigment lac lake since the addition of
In addition to the zhu mkhan leaves, Tibetan substances such as sal ammoniac (rgya tshwa) and alum
painters sometimes also added native salts such as (tsha Ie) precipitated out the redder lake.
calcined borax (tsha le) to the lac dye solution to
make the colour more permanent. The addition of Yellow Organic Dyes
these salts probably precipitated out some of the dye
as lac lake. One painter described the calcined borax In addition to indigo and lac dye a number of other dyes
as acting as a sort of "binder" for the dye, since the were used. Most of these were yellow, and they were
dye became thicker and stronger when some borax used to brighten and highlight areas of green such as
was added. leaves and grassy hilltops. The three most common
Once the dye had been heated for a while and yellow dyes were made from petals of a wild rose,
most of it had gone into solution, the red-coloured petals of the yellow utpal flower, and from the already-
water was poured off, leaving the gummy lac (la cha) described zhu mkhan.
and any solid residues in the bottom of the pot. (This The wild rose used by Tibetan painters was the
lac was used later for such things as sealing wax and species Rosa sericea Lind!. which was called se ba'i me
by jewelers for cementing stones in silver bezels,) The tog in Tibetan. 10 It grows in thorny bushes six or eight
dye or lake solution which was poured off was finally feet tall, and its petals, the source of the dye, are
dried out by slow, careful warming over a low heat. yellowish-white. The artists first gathered the petals
What remained after drying was a solid dyestuff that and dried them in the shade, and then extracted the dye
could be reconstituted by putting some in a dish of by soaking the petals in water with a little zhu mkhan
warm water and stirring it until it dissolved. If, however, leaf.

114 SHADING AND COLOUR GRADATION