Page 7 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

of such traditions as the Karma Gardri (karma sgar bris), unfortunately a few crucial pigments such as azurite
the New Menri (srnan ris gsar rna) of Kham, and the and malachite have become rarer than gold in recent
regional styles of Amdo and Shigatse would make years. (India has deposits of these minerals, but there is
'welcome additions to current knowledge of Tibetan as yet no means of distributing them to the artists).
painting. A small number of painting teachers have even
When we began this study eleven years ago we succumbed to the temptation of employing only the
thought that we were recording and preserving a dying cheap and readily available commercial colours. As a
tradition. Now, however, it seems clear that thangka result they have unintentionally created in their students
painting on the whole is in no danger of becoming a group of Tibetan painters who have never used the
extinct. Although traditional art is today moribund in traditional colours. If we could influence any aspect of
Tibet proper, it is flourishing in the Tibetan settlements the living tradition we would encourage such young
of South Asia on a scale that nobody could have painters not to give up the traditional pigments without
predicted two decades ago. Some of the younger trying them. Ten or twenty years from now they may
painters are even showing promise of one day reaching reach the same conclusion themselves when they see
the high levels attained by the early masters. how their poster colours have faded. Meanwhile we have
Perhaps the only aspect of Tibetan painting that no doubt that the majority of Tibetan artists will con-
has suffered markedly in the new environment is the use tinue to paint with as many of the traditional colours as
of traditional materials. Many of the painters have tried they can, for these are colours with not only a glorious
to continue to use the old pigments and dyes, but past but also a bright future.
Mussoorie, David and Janice Jackson
April 1982

Notes

1. Although no detailed study of Tibetan painting topic, among whom we could mention Marco
methods and materials was undertaken by Western Pallis? Peaks and Lamas (New York, Alfred A.
scholars in the past, interest in certain technical Knopf, 1940), pp.332-338; G. Tucci, Tibetan
aspects of Tibetan art goes back to the great pioneer Painted Scrolls (Rome, 1949), voLl, p.268, and
of Tibetan studies, Csoma de Koras. As early as D. L. Snellgrove, Four Lamas of Do/po (Oxford,
1825 he wrote that he had extracted from the 1967/8), voLl, p.58. Much of the information in
Tanjur as a representative sample a treatise on the main early sources was summed up by John
technology, one that "enumerates what must be C. Huntington in his "The Technique of Tibetan
the proportion in feet, inches, lines of a statue Paintings," Studies in Conservation, voLl5 (1970),
representing Buddha or Shakya." See Theodore pp.122-133.
Duka, Life and Works of Alexander Csoma de
Koriis (New Delhi, 1972), p.50. Evidence of similar New and more detailed technical information on
interest is also found in M. H. Godwin-Austen's pigments became available only with the appearance
article, "On the System Employed in Outlining of V. R. Mehra's "Notes on the Technique and
the Figures of Deities and other Religious Draw- Conservation of Some Thang-ka Paintings," Studies
ings as Practiced in Ladak, Zaskar, etc.," Journal in Conservation, voLl5 (1970), pp.190-214. N~arly
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vo1.33 (1864), identical information was also presented by O. P.
pp.151-154. On some of the subsequent research on Agrawal in "Conservation of Asian Cultural Objects:
Tibetan iconometry in particular see the sources Asian Materials and Techniques; Tibetan Tankas,"
cited by A. K. Gerasimova in her "Compositional Museum (UNESCO), vol.27 (1975), pp.181-197.
Structure in Tibetan Iconography," The Tibet
One source that regrettably was not available to us
Journal, vol.3 (1978), pAO and also below,
Appendix A, notel. during the preparation of this book was the film by
C. Jest: Ma-gCig "la Mere", Peinture d'une thanka,
Studies on the practice of Tibetan painting, how- Centre National de 1a Recherche Scientifique,
ever, did not get a good start until Rahula 1968.
Sankrityayana wrote his "Technique in Tibetan
Painting," Asia, vo1.37 (1937), pp.711-71S. Before 2. Bo-dong Pan-chen Phyogs-las-rnam-rgyal, Mkhas
pa Jug pa'i [sgo] bzo rig sku gsung thugs kyi rten
that, G. N. Roerich had given a few details in his
Tibetan Paintings ,(Paris, Librarie Orientaliste- bzhengs tshul bshad pa, Collected Works (New
Delhi, 1969), vol.2, p.262.2: "zhib par lag len
Paul Geuthner, 1925), p.18f. And after Sankrit- mkhas la sbyang. "
yayana a few other scholars briefly touched on the

PREFACE 3