Major Categories of the Paintings

The pictorial art is another major Tibetan art form. It is most popular among all art forms of Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore it is reputed as the ‘King of the Arts? As those in Christine and other religions, the pictorial art of the Tibetan Buddhism has reflected the role of religious veneration and mobilization of religious emotion of the believers. After successfully trying to press the “incomparable Buddhist power?with the symbolist method, Buddhist leaders has realized the educational and aesthetic functions of the pictorial art and hence incorporated the art into their veneration system. According to the religious doctrines, they formalized a series of standard for size proportion, body gesture, hand gesture and subjects. The book enliled Principle on Metrics of Painting intended, by means of the pictorial art, to trigger and enhance unshrinking passion of the believers and to disseminate the essences of Buddhism. The Buddhist pictorial art was introduced to Tibet along with the Buddhist doctrines and combined with the traditional Tibetan art, thus forming the pictorial art of Tibetan Buddhism, which can be further divided into four major art forms: rock drawings, fresco, Thangka and woodcut.

Major Categories of the Paintings

Rock drawing is the oldest category in Tibet prevalent since prehistoric times and Tubo period. In recent years with the Tibetan archeology work enhancing, a large number of rock drawings have been discovered in almost all parts of Tibet continuously, especially in Western Tibet (mainly in Nagri) and Northern Tibet.