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- date on thankas. Even though bound and limited by iconographical restrictions, the Tibetan thanka artists were able to create some of the world�s most colourful and brilliant religious art. In fact, the main charm and most striking feature of Tibetan painting is its rich and varied palette of vibrant colours.
The gorgeous colours are obtained from a variety of mineral sources and vegetable substances (e.g., red from cinnabar and lacquer, blue from azurite and indigo, green from malachite, black from coal and soot, etc.). The mineral colours needed to be mixed with animal glue whereas the vegetable dyes did not. The term usually used for the colouring in Tibetan thankas, although not always correct, is gouache.
The production of a thanka, which in itself is an act of devotion, occurs in four distinct stages�the preparation of the painting surface, the sketching of the outlines, the actual painting, and the mounting of the picture. Perhaps technically speaking there is a fifth stage, that of the consecration of the thanka.
In preparation for the painting, usually a rectangular piece of loosely woven cotton, or occasionally linen, is stretched on a wooden frame. First, it is saturated with a mixture of glue and chalk, and then the surface is polished with a stone or shell. Following this, an outline of the deity is carefully sketched with charcoal. Two other methods were also employed to make an outline�by using stencil-sheets with tiny perforations for applying charcoal dust, and by printing the outlines with a woodblock. The preparation of the surface, the drawing of the outline, and the painting of the background were performed by an apprentice. The finer details and the application of gold were done by the skilled master painter. The finished painting was sewn onto a silk or brocade border with two thin red and yellow strips called �rainbow� framing the picture. A thin curtain or veil was usually added for
�Sunning the Buddha� at Taer Si, Qinghai province
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