Characteristics
Thang-ga is a unique form of painting in Tibetan culture with distinctive national and religious characteristics as well as exceptional artistic style. Traditionally, dyes used include valuable minerals and gemstones such as gold, silver, pearl, agate and plants like saffron, rhubarb. Because of these natural dyes, paintings appear gorgeous and can be preserved for hundreds of years without any change in color. As a result, Thang-ga is known as the artistic treasure of Chinese ethnic painting. It is also called the Tibetan encyclopedia and is a precious intangible cultural heritage in Chinese folk art.
Color
Thang-ga painters classify dyes into nine categories: soil, stone, water, fire, wood, grass, flower, bone and gemstone. These natural dyes can also be categorized into seven colors: white, yellow, red, blue, green, black and purple.
Dyes can also come from plants or minerals. Common mineral dyes are renbu argil, cinnabar, lapis lazuli, malachite, yellow lead etc. Plant dyes include cyanidin, coccineus, etc. whose manufacturing is easier than mineral dyes.
Cotent
Known as the encyclopedia of Tibetan culture, Thang-ga mainly concentrate on religion, but also touch history, politics, economy, culture, folklore, architecture, medicine, astronomy etc. Regarding the contents of Thang-ga, there are usually two kinds: religous and non-religous (secular).
Religious Thang-ga include images of mandalas, Buddhism, Arhat, and portraits of wheel of life or Sukhavati etc. Secular Thang-ga involve history, legends, astronomy, Tibetan medicine etc.
Genre
There are several genres of Thang-ga arising from its long history of development. For example, the Nepal School started in the 7th century, the Qiwu Gangba School in the Zongkaba period, the Man Thang Pa and Chen Zher School in 15th century, the Karzhi School etc.
Process
The rigorous and complicated procedure of drawing Thang-ga is supposed to follow the order of Guru, including a set of processes like initial rituals, canvas production, coloring, outlining, mounting and so on. It usually takes a long period to finish a Thang-ga, ranging from half a year to more than a decade.