e-magazine
The Hot Zone
China's newly announced air defense identification zone over the East China Sea aims to shore up national security
Current Issue
· Table of Contents
· Editor's Desk
· Previous Issues
· Subscribe to Mag
Subscribe Now >>
Expert's View
World
Nation
Business
Finance
Market Watch
Legal-Ease
North American Report
Forum
Government Documents
Expat's Eye
Health
Science/Technology
Lifestyle
Books
Movies
Backgrounders
Special
Photo Gallery
Blogs
Reader's Service
Learning with
'Beijing Review'
E-mail us
RSS Feeds
PDF Edition
Web-magazine
Reader's Letters
Make Beijing Review your homepage
Hot Links

cheap eyeglasses
Market Avenue
eBeijing

Lifestyle
Print Edition> Lifestyle
UPDATED: September 10, 2012 NO. 37 SEPTEMBER 13, 2012
Keeping Buddha in Mind
A charity foundation trains students to learn the Tibetan art of thangka painting
By Xu Bei
Share

VISUAL LEARNER: Pedma (right), a thangka master, instructs his pupil in the elaborate painting ritual (SHI GANG)

EVERY STEP COUNTS: A trainee in thangka painting learns how to grind gold powder, a basic ingredient of the painting process (BAI SHI)

Required course

As thangka painting requires delicate technique, collection of thangka paintings has been in vogue in recent years.

However, it is the piety of the painters that endows thangka with its unique charms, according to Pedma. "Without piety, even with exquisite skill, the painting would lose its sense and cultural foundation."

"It will take 10 years to cultivate a thangka painter," Pedma continued. "However, some painters begin to work independently after only two years' learning, and each of their paintings would be sold at a price of 2,000 yuan ($316)," he said.

Such quick learning resulted in a lack of creativity. Without piety and solid skills, such works have no soul in Pedma's opinion.

For Pedma's students, it is a required course to read and research sutras and use them to cultivate Buddhist virtues.

By day, students practice drawing techniques, and by night, they recite sutras with their teacher. The quiet courtyard is secluded and their austere lifestyle is advantageous to their craft.

Over 1,300 years ago, strict guidelines for drawing the Buddha were defined in a sutra, which is one more difficulty for students. Drawing techniques may change with the times, but the proportions of the Buddha's features never do.

Only drawing in a meticulous way can one relay a vivid lifelike image of the Buddha.

"When drawing, painters must make full concentration with piety to Buddha, and keep in mind the Buddha's image. Before brush meets canvas, painters must learn by heart what religious objects are grasped in each hand. The painters also need to practice constantly for years," Pedma said.

It takes all kinds

"We found that thangka art currently meets many difficulties in protection and inheriting when we made inspections to areas inhabited by Tibetans. The most outstanding problem is the lack of inheritors," said Pedma.

Slashed by commercialization and industrialization, many thangka painters find it hard to devote 10 years just to learning the basics.

"In the face of such situations we held training classes to provide an opportunity to further educate those talented students who are willing to learn the art of thangka, to cultivate them as inheritors of the art," said Pedma.

"For teachers, the classes will be a good platform to find talented students. For other students, even if they cannot become inheritors of the thangka tradition, they may learn some basic techniques and understand the art through studying here."

The operation of the class also helps make a change from the traditional inherited methods where women and laymen were forbidden to learn thangka.

According to Pedma, most thangka painters have been male, because they needed to go to temples to learn the art, and many of the techniques are passed down from their ancestors: If one's grandfather and father both painted, so will he.

Now, anyone has an opportunity to become a painter regardless of gender or family status, as long as he or she is talented, determined, pious and of calm mind. "My daughter is following me to study the thangka painting, and she is studying hard," said Pedma.

Email us at: liuyuanyuan@bjreview.com

   Previous   1   2  



 
Top Story
-Protecting Ocean Rights
-Partners in Defense
-Fighting HIV+'s Stigma
-HIV: Privacy VS. Protection
-Setting the Tone
Related Stories
-Keeping Cultural Genes Alive
-Tibet Is a Better Place Than It Used to Be
 
Most Popular
 
About BEIJINGREVIEW | About beijingreview.com | Rss Feeds | Contact us | Advertising | Subscribe & Service | Make Beijing Review your homepage
Copyright Beijing Review All right reserved