Thangka Paintings

Mandalas Life
2 min readApr 18, 2018

--

In Nepal, you will find two kinds of Thangka paintings. Newari and Tibetan Thangkas.

Newari Thangka Paintings are for both Hindu and Buddhist deities in different sizes and price range painted by the experienced artists of Newar community of Kathmandu valley, noted historically for their brilliant works of spiritual art and architecture, have been practicing Paubha Paintings from generations.

The Newari Thangka Paintings also known as Paubha Paintings which is considered as an endangered art, similar to that of Tibetan Thangka Paintings. There are only a very small number Paubha painters left in Nepal today.

USE OF THANGKA PAINTINGS
There are various use of Thangka Paintings. Thangka serve many purposed in Tibetan & Newari society

  • In a temple, thangka are uses for worship and meditation of a priest, and practice of specific Buddhism.
  • Thangka are intended to serve as a record of, and guide for contemplative experience. For example, you might be instructed by your teacher to imagine yourself as a specific figure in a specific setting. You could use a thangka as a reference for the details of posture, attitude, colour, clothing. etc., of a figure located in a field, or in a palace, possibly surrounded by many other figures of meditation teachers, your family, etc.. In this way, thangkas are intended to convey iconographic information in a pictorial manner. A text of the same meditation would supply similar details in written descriptive form.
  • In Tibetan culture Thangka is used for the time of the ceremony on the 49 the of the separative who passed away. Moreover, it is used also in the case of the congratulation of a marriage ceremony or the New Year.
  • Thangka afford us important material for studying the religion, history, culture, painting, arts and crafts, and scientific achievements of Tibet .
  • Thangka is now a days used as a decorative objects.

--

--