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Beijing unrolls and unrolls and unrolls Tibetan painting

May 11, 2000
Web posted at: 4:22 p.m. EDT (2022 GMT)

BEIJING (Reuters) -- China is displaying the latest and largest Tibetan painting, a canvas stretching more than six football fields in length that took 400 artists four years to create.

The Tibetan thankga painting, all 2,028 feet (618 meters) of it, went on exhibit at the Revolutionary Museum in Beijing earlier this month.

Ornate and colorful, thankga paintings are an essential part of Tibetan art, devotional prayer and teaching tools. They contain images of stories in sacred Buddhist lessons.

Painted with piercing colors on hardy canvas, the world's longest thankga was created in western Qinghai province, which borders Tibet. It was transported to Beijing for public display.

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What makes the thankga unique is the exceptional amount of time and dedication required to complete these detailed works of art. It is not unusual for several artists to spend one or two years completing a small work.

"Religious art is a very beautiful part of Tibetan art," said Dhondrup Rabje, an artist from Qinghai who created a segment of thankga. "My goal is to let the world and the whole of China understand ... art has no boundaries."

Over the centuries, as Buddhism took hold throughout Tibet, the artistic traditions of India, Nepal and China influenced Tibetan art.

India brought the tradition of painting figures to Tibetan art, while China taught Tibetan artists to visualize nature.

Images of stories in sacred Buddhist canons are captured in the thanka, or "hanging painting," now on view at the Revolutionary Museum in Beijing

The method of painting a thankga is complex and usually involves one or more artists because the work is so demanding. A master craftsman draws in the outline in black and red, then chooses colors to be used and instructs his assistants.

The pigments used are derived from vegetable and mineral sources, such as ground lapis lazuli.

The result is an astounding piece of art, said one Tibetan student who recently visited the exhibition.

"It's the best I've seen," he said. "I've never seen such a long thankga painting before. It's a rare thing and I think it's great."

Thankgas are widely used in Tibet. Monks employ them in monasteries as teaching tools because they're easy to move. Other people hang them in their houses to ward off evil sprits.

Many of the thankgas that hung on high temple walls were destroyed or seriously damaged during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1967-1977).

Another problem facing Tibetan art is that many sacred artworks have been uprooted and scattered far and wide. Paintings which were part of multipanel sets now hang alone in the West as single paintings.

Traditionally, Tibetan paintings are mounted on elaborate silk brocades. A plain piece of silk hangs in front as a dust protector and can be flipped behind when the painting is viewed.

This technique of mounting suited nomadic Tibetans' lifestyles. The paintings could be rolled for ease of transport and unrolled for devotion and meditation.

The new thankga, which draws on hundreds of years of artistic tradition and legions of artists, is a tribute to the rich history of Tibetan art and could spell the beginning of a renaissance of sacred Buddhist art.

Copyright 2000Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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