Tibetan Thangka Painting

Thangka painting is the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of painting on cotton or silk, most commonly in gouache or distemper, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, teacher, protective figure or mandala. Thangkas are kept unframed and rolled when not on display, mounted on a textile backing in a manner comparable to Chinese scroll paintings, with a silk cover protecting the front, a construction suited to the itinerant, ritual use of Tibetan Buddhist religious establishments across the Himalayan region. Thangkas were commissioned by monasteries and individual patrons and produced in workshops by monks and lay artists, most of whom remain unnamed, and they served as focal images for meditation, teaching and ritual empowerment rather than as secular decorative painting.