Thousand-year-old Thangka walks into common Tibetan families

Tibetan girl Tsering spent 20,000 yuan on a Thangka painting of the White Tara for her family prayer room the other day, which is the seventh Thangka works she has bought.
 
Thangka usually refers to a religious scroll painting of deity decorated with colorful satins and consecrated by devotees, which is a unique painting art form in Tibetan culture with over 1,000 years history.
 
In Old Tibet, Thangka works were mainly enshrined in temples and noble families and were hardly imaginable for the vast common believers. However, now it can be seen in urban commercial residential buildings, and tents and contemporary settlements of farmers and nomads in Tibet. Thangka works have become an important part of many Tibetan residents' religious life.
 
A Thangka painting of deity that can be movable with people stands for a Buddha-hall that transcends time and space. "Many of my friends and colleagues consecrate Thangka paintings at home," said Tsering. "I pray that this White Tara could ward off ill fortunes for us and bring auspiciousness to all sentiment beings."
 
The first thing Tsering's grandmother Sangmo does is to worship the deity in the Thangka works at her family's prayer room on the first floor. Then(?) she would go out for ritual walk while chanting prayers with a prayer wheel in hand. As a descendant of serf, she only saw Thangka at monasteries when she was little, thus the fact that Thangka can be seen in shops everywhere now makes this old lady really happy.
 
As Sangmo said, there are many shops selling Thangka works in the Barkhor business street in Lhasa, which attracts waves upon waves of domestic and overseas tourists.
 
Dargye, one of the Thangka shop owners on Barkhor Street, introduced that his Thangka paintings were collected from folk artists and sold at 2,000 yuan to a dozen thousand yuan.
 
"Usually, the local residents would come to buy Thangka. And in hot seasons of tourism, many foreign guests would come specially to buy these works," Dargye said.
 
Since the project "Hundred New Thangka Painting of Tibet" was launched in 2012, Thangka painting in Tibet has become more innovative to touch beyond religious themes such as "Happy Sweet-tea House" and "Princess Wencheng Comes to Tibet", which reflect traditional culture, history, and social life in Tibet and are recognized and welcomed by Tibetan people.
 
A 63-year-old Lhasa citizen Phurbu Tsering said, "Thangka works in the past mainly were about religion. Now Tibetan cultural heritage and historical stories can also be displayed in Thangka works, which makes Thangka closer to us common people."