Page 147 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

yellow brocade
D

,
blue brocade
,
,
-----~------------------------------------
wo en ro
Common proportions of the brocade thangka frame.

Other Finishing Steps

With the completion of the faces and the burnishing of dot was later incorporated into the head of the syllable.
the gold, the production of the painting came to an end. When the syllables had been written in with red
Some fine thangkas, such as those belonging to a large letters, nothing remained for the painter to do but to
set, at this point received gold inscriptions beneath each clean the painting once more (with tsampa dough or a
major figure. It was important to do this with correct clean rag) and to remove it from the stretcher. For
spellings and in a fine hand. Therefore, if this was the latter task he took a sharp knife and carefully cut
beyond the capabilities of the artist, some other person all four sides leaving only the corners uncut. Then,
such as a learned lama or a scribe would be called upon holding the painting in place with one hand, he severed
to help. the four corners, first the bottom two and then the top
Next some artists gave the completed painting a ones. The artist had to take care to leave enough of a
final dry-polishing on its back. Wangdrak was one who border (approximately half an inch on each side of the
did so, and it made his finished paintings soft and painting) so that a brocade frame could later be sewn
resistant to cracking. First he laid a flat sheet of wood on without damaging the painting itself. This was not
on a smooth surface and covered it with a clean cloth. difficult, for the red border strip around the edges of
Then he placed the stretcher face down on the cloth and the painting gave him a guideline for the width of the
rubbed the canvas all over with his dry-polishing stone. required edge.
Finally, to function as a sacred object of worship Once the painting was removed from the stretcher,
the painting had to be mounted in a cloth frame, and the artist rolled it up, tied it with a strip of cloth or a
then consecrated through the ceremony of vivification piece of twine, and kept it carefully until the patron
(rab gnas). As a preparation for this consecration, while called for it. The painter then needed only remove the
the painting was still in the stretcher many artists wrote remaining eqges of unused canvas to free the stretcher
in the sacred syllables O¥ AI:! HU¥ on the back of the for his next painting.
canvas behind the forehead, throat and heart of each
main figure. These syllables represented the essence of
the enlightened body, speech and mind with which the
figures were to be imbued during the consecration
Notes
ritual. In special instances, other syllables also had to be
written on the back of the painting in their appropriate I. An exception was White Tara, who was often
places. To position each syllable correctly, some painters depicted with "bow eyes" (gzhu spyan).
first held the canvas up to a light source and put dots of
vermilion at each of the spots needing a syllable. The 2. Thompson, p.214.

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