To choose a thangka, decide first who you want it to show, then find out exactly how it was made, then look closely at the drawing, the finish and the mounting, and only after that think about size and price. A thangka is a Tibetan Buddhist image mounted so it can be rolled and carried, and almost everything that separates a good one from a poor one can be checked by asking those questions in that order. This guide goes through them one at a time, and is honest about where our own thangkas sit among the kinds you will find for sale.
How do I choose a thangka? Five questions to ask
- Who is it? Every thangka shows a particular buddha, bodhisattva, goddess, protector or teacher. Choose the figure first; everything else follows from it.
- How was it made? Hand-painted in mineral pigments, painted in modern paints, appliquéd in silk, or printed. Each is a real category, and each should be named honestly.
- Is the drawing right? Thangka figures are drawn to fixed proportions and carry fixed attributes. A beautiful image with the wrong hand gesture is the wrong deity.
- How is it finished and mounted? Gold, borders, silk, frame or roll, and how well it will survive the room it hangs in.
- What does it cost, and why? Price follows labor and materials. If the price does not match the description, one of them is wrong.
If you are new to the form itself, start with What Is a Thangka?, which covers its history, the grid, the pigments and the kinds of thangka you can buy today.
Which deity should I choose for a thangka?
There is no wrong answer, but there are better and worse matches for what you want the image to be in your home. These are the figures people most often begin with.
- Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, seated with his right hand touching the earth. If you want one image that stands for the whole tradition, this is it. See our Shakyamuni Buddha thangka and the story of the gesture in Shakyamuni and the Earth-Touching Mudra.
- Green Tara, the goddess of swift compassion, with one leg stepping down from her throne. She is the most loved female figure in Tibetan Buddhism; we make Green Tara thangkas in three compositions, including our classic Green Tara, and her iconography is in Green Tara and the 21 Taras.
- Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, with a flaming sword raised and a book on a lotus. Often chosen for a study or a place of work. See the Manjushri thangka.
- The Medicine Buddha, deep blue, holding a bowl. Tibetan doctors have long kept his image. See the Medicine Buddha thangka in black and gold.
- Amitabha, the red buddha of boundless light, hands resting in meditation. See the Amitabha Buddha thangka.
- Protectors such as Six-Armed Mahakala or Palden Lhamo are wrathful in appearance and have particular places in practice. They are striking images, and it is worth reading about them before you hang one; we explain Mahakala in Six-Armed Mahakala.
If you practice within a lineage, ask your teacher; many traditions have a deity that a student is given. If you do not, choose the figure you would like to look at every day, and learn who it is. Our full range is in the thangka wall art collection, grouped as Buddha thangkas, Tara and goddess thangkas and bodhisattva and protector thangkas.
Hand-painted, appliqué or printed: what kind of thangka is it?
This is the question that matters most, and the one sellers most often blur. There are four main kinds.
- Hand-painted in mineral pigments. The classical method: a primed cotton ground, colors ground from minerals such as azurite, malachite and vermilion, together with organic dyes such as indigo and lac, bound in animal glue, and gold for line and ornament. Museum pieces like the eighteenth-century White Tara at the Rubin Museum of Art are described as "ground mineral pigment" on cotton. A large, fine painting of this kind represents weeks or months of a trained painter's time.
- Hand-painted in modern paints. Still painted by hand, still a painted thangka, but with acrylic or other synthetic colors instead of ground minerals. These can be good work. They should be sold as what they are.
- Appliqué and embroidered. Thangkas made of cut and stitched silk, including the giant ones unrolled on display walls or hillsides at monastery festivals. A separate craft, with its own makers.
- Printed. Printing has been part of Tibetan image-making for centuries. The Derge Printing House in Kham, founded in the 1730s under the patronage of the King of Derge, printed images of deities from carved woodblocks alongside its books, and the Rubin Museum holds three hundred of its prints. Today most printed thangkas are made from a drawing or a photograph of a painting, on paper, card or canvas.
A printed thangka is a real image of the deity. It is not a painted thangka, and it should never be sold as one. The honest test is simple: ask the seller, in writing, "Is this painted by hand, and in what?" A good seller will answer plainly.
Where our thangkas sit
We will answer that question for ours. Each of our thangkas is our own drawing, made to traditional iconometric proportions and printed on heavy card. It is not hand-painted, and it is not mineral pigment. What is done by hand is the finishing: at a temple, elderly lay Buddhists who practice there set glass crystals one by one along the halos, arches and ornaments and trace the outlines in gold glitter, which is not gilding. Each piece takes about two days of their work. Part of every order goes back to that temple.
How can you tell a hand-painted thangka from a print?
You often can at a glance, and you nearly always can with a magnifier.
- Look at the edges of fine lines. Paint leaves a slightly raised, irregular edge and, where one color meets another, a small overlap. A print is flat, and under magnification it may show a regular dot or ink pattern.
- Look at the gold. Painted gold is a separate layer that catches the light differently from the colors around it, and on fine work it is often burnished or raised. Printed gold is usually a flat metallic ink.
- Look at the back. A painted thangka on cotton shows the weave and sometimes paint seeping through. Many consecrated paintings also carry writing on the back, which we come to below.
- Compare price to claim. A large thangka described as hand-painted in mineral pigments by a master painter, offered for the price of a framed print, is not what it says.
None of this makes a print a bad thing to own. It only means you should know which one you have.
How to judge the drawing of a thangka
Thangka painters draw on a grid of fixed proportions, with each class of figure, buddha, peaceful bodhisattva, goddess, wrathful protector, given its own measurements. David and Janice Jackson set out these iconometric systems in detail in Tibetan Thangka Painting: Methods and Materials (1984), still the standard handbook. You do not need to measure anything to see the difference they make. Look for:
- Balance. The central figure sits squarely, the halo is round and centered, and the two sides of the body mirror each other where they should.
- The face and eyes. Calm, even and alive in peaceful figures; the eyes are the focus of the whole image. In the tradition they are the last thing painted.
- The hands. Each deity has a fixed gesture and fixed objects. Shakyamuni touches the earth; Green Tara's right hand is open in giving; Manjushri raises a sword. White Tara, if you are choosing her, should have an eye in each palm and on each sole, as we explain in White Tara: Meaning and Iconography.
- The details around the figure. Thrones, lotuses, clouds and secondary figures should be drawn with the same care as the center, not filled in.
Full color, black and gold, or red and gold?
Most thangkas are painted in full color on a landscape ground. Two other grounds have their own names and character: nagthang, gold line on a black ground, which began with wrathful protectors and is now used for peaceful figures as well; and marthang, gold on red. Black and gold reads as quiet and dignified on a pale wall; full color reads as warm and festive. We explain the three in Black, Gold and Red Thangkas, and our black and gold thangkas are grouped in their own collection.
Size, mounting and framing
Traditionally a thangka is mounted in a border of silk brocade, with a rod at the top and bottom so it can be rolled, and often a thin silk veil that hangs in front of the image. Many people now frame one behind glass or acrylic instead, which protects it from dust, handling and the creases of rolling, though not from damp or strong sun.
- Measure the wall first. A thangka is meant to be looked up at. Allow space above and around it, and hang it at or above eye level.
- Check both sizes. Sellers quote the image, the mounting, or both. Ask for the outer dimensions you will actually hang.
- Check the mounting. Real silk brocade, straight seams and square corners are signs of care. A frame should be rigid and ready to hang.
Ours are all one size: 55 by 71 centimeters (21.7 by 28 inches) for the frame, around an image of 40.2 by 56.2 centimeters, with a silk brocade frame-within-a-frame in one of four colorways, a wood frame and an acrylic front. Our care notes are in How to Hang and Care for a Thangka.
How much does a thangka cost?
Price follows two things: whose hands worked on it, and for how long. A small printed image may cost little; a large painting in mineral pigments by an established painter can cost many thousands, and it is right that it should. Between them sit modern-paint paintings, appliqués and hand-finished prints. The useful question is not "is this expensive?" but "does the price match what I am being told?"
Our framed thangkas are priced the same across the range, and the price covers the drawing, the print, two days of hand finishing at the temple, the brocade and frame, and free tracked shipping with duties paid.
Is a thangka consecrated, and does it need to be?
In Tibet a newly made image is usually consecrated before it is treated as a support for practice. Many old thangkas carry the signs on the back. The Rubin Museum's educator guide to its exhibition on the backs of paintings explains that the syllables om ah hum are written behind the figure's forehead, throat and heart, for body, speech and mind, and that the Sanskrit verse of dependent origination is written there for its consecratory power. Consecration is done by monks or teachers, in the tradition's own way.
Whether your thangka needs it depends on what it is for. If it will be part of practice, ask your teacher. If it is an image you want to live with, it does not have to be.
For those who would like it, we offer Temple consecration as an option on every thangka, for US$100. Your thangka is placed in the temple's main hall overnight and consecrated by the monks with chanting the next morning. We send you photos and a short video of it in the hall; the ceremony itself is not filmed, because the temple does not permit it. The full US$100 is offered to the temple. A consecrated thangka ships in 5 to 7 business days and is final sale unless it arrives damaged. More on how we approach this is on our consecration page. We describe what the monks do; we make no claim that consecration protects anyone or changes anything.
Thangka buying questions
How do I know if a thangka is authentic?
"Authentic" should mean that it is what the seller says it is. Ask how it was made, by whom and in what, and get the answer in writing. Then check the drawing against the deity's iconography and the surface under a magnifier.
Is a printed thangka a real thangka?
It is a real image of the deity, and printing has a long history in Tibet. It is not a painted thangka, and it should be sold clearly as a print.
What is the best thangka for a beginner?
Many people start with Shakyamuni Buddha, Green Tara or Manjushri: peaceful figures, widely loved and easy to learn about. Choose the one you would like to see every day.
Can I have a thangka if I am not Buddhist?
Yes. Treat it as you would any sacred image: hang it somewhere clean and raised, and learn who it shows. We wrote about the same question for jewelry in Can You Wear Buddhist Jewelry If You're Not Buddhist?
Where should a thangka be hung?
High rather than low, never on the floor, not in a bathroom, and out of direct sun and damp. In a shrine, the Buddha takes the center.
Should I buy a framed or a rolled thangka?
Rolled is traditional and easy to move; framed is easier to live with and better protected from dust and handling. If you buy rolled and frame it later, make sure the framer does not glue or trim the silk.
May what you choose be worth looking up at, every day.
Thangka Wall Art · Shakyamuni Buddha Thangka · Green Tara Thangka · Manjushri Thangka · Black & Gold Thangkas
More from the Journal: What Is a Thangka? · Black, Gold and Red Thangkas · How to Hang a Thangka · The Medicine Buddha