Page 119 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

Rosa sericea Lind!. (se ba'i me tog) Two flowers called utpal.

Red sandalwood (tsandan dmar po) Safflower (gur gum)

The yellow utpal (utpal ser po) was a plant with Next the pulpy residue of the wood had to be strained
yellow flowers that grew in high alpine meadows and in out. Then the dye was ready for immediate use, and it
the grasslands of the Byang-thang. 11 Its fruiting body could also be dried and stored. Legdrup Gyatsho used
was light green and about three inches long. According this dye for shading certain red and brown objects and
to an old saying remembered by Legdrup Gyatsho, the for special outlining effects around flames.
fruit of the plant "resembled the musk gland of the A yellowish-orange dye was made from either
musk deer" (gla pho'i gla rtsi 'dra). To make the dye saffron (Crocus sativus Linn.) or safflower (Carthamus
from this flower, the painters collected and dried the tinctorius), both of which were called gur gum in
petals, and then soaked them in water just as with the Tibetan. 13 A painter from Khams who worked in the
wild rose petals. Karma-sgar-bris style told us of the use of this dye. He
Two other yellow dyes that were sometimes used used to extract it by heating the dried flower parts in
in painting were those derived from barberry (skyer pal some water together with some home-brewed beer
bark and rhubarb roots (chu'i rtsa). (chang).

An Unusual Application of Dyes
Red or Orange Dyes
Once in a great while the artists were asked to use these
In addition to the above yellow colours there were also vegetable dyes for the creation of thangkas of
two red or orange dyes that some painters employed. exceptional sanctity. The Venerable Dezhung Rinpoche
The first of these was a reddish-brown shading dye made told us about one such thangka that his teacher Sga-
from red sandalwood (tsandan dmar po). 12 One artist ston Ngag-dbang-Iegs-pa had ordered to be made. It was
who used this dye for shading was Legdrup Gyatsho, a thangka of Manjusri that was to be used as the main
who had learned its use from his father. The preparation icon during a special retreat for the propitiation of the
of red-sandalwood dye posed no special problems. The great bodhisattva of wisdom. To maximize the holiness
artist began by crushing the wood into very small of the painting, Sga-ston instructed the artist to use
pieces and then he heated it in water (preferably with only pure vegetable materials and to avoid glue and
some zhu mkhan) until a dark solution was produced. other products derived from animals.

THE DYES USED IN SHADING 11 5