A Catalogue of Tibetan Thangkas in the Indian Museum (An Old and Rare Book)

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Whether as a textile art or as a piece of painting. Tibetan thanka has a mixed appeal of awe, wonder and admiration. The world of thankas provides various information, ritualistic, social, historical, iconographic, philosophic and even astrological beliefs of the people of Tibet. These temple banners also combine in them different art traditions, both indigenous and foreign This colourful and chequered story of the Tibetan textile art attracted me when I was studying the collection of thankas in the museums of Leiden, Amsterdam, Paris and London in 1969. Mere interest in the subject turned to be a joyous responsibility when a new Tibetan Thanka Gallery was set up by me at the Indian Museum in the year 1974 A descriptive catalogue of the exhibits is, therefore, a desideratum and logical outcome of this sustained endeavour.

Indian Museum, Calcutta, possesses a moderately large collection of painted scrolls, to wit, about 150 odds produced in Tibet and Nepal, the bulk of which is preserved in the Art Section and the rest in the Archaeology Section, all collected between 1912 and 1974. These thankas depict gods and goddesses of Buddhist and Brahmanical pantheons, preachers of Buddhist faith and historical personages. A few specimens contain inscriptions as well. Of somewhat peculiar interest are those few thankas which may be classified as astrological thankas, the fortune-telling thankas played on with dice as a sort of game. A thanka that depicts the Kalacakra's story, a scene of battle between Buddhist King and the Muslims, is an uncommon specimen. The very large thanka having a size of 645 cm x 430 cm with the painting of Yama and Yami done in applique technique deserves special mention. Twenty-five of these thankas as displayed in the gallery are elaborately dealt with in this catalogue. Besides, a collection of ninety-two thankas in the Reserve of the Art Section has been eventually classified with identification of figures depicted therein as well as other relevant museological data. They range in date from 15th to 19th century A.D. Since Tibetan thankas are mainly undated and anonymous, the dates suggested here are tentative.

Tibetan art is best known by its thankas or scroll-paintings which are hung in temples or occasionally carried in processions or religious festivals. The term thanka is deduced from Tibetan ta' an ka or t' ansku, meaning something that is rolled up, to be specific, a rolled up image or a painted jconostasis The most popular term thanka has actually replaced its two other names ras bris or tas to moir design on cotton, both corresponding to the Sanskrit word pața. Painted on cotton, more rarely on canvas, generally rectangular in shape, a thanka is always rolled up from the bottom. Generally mandala thankas are square. The painted surface called melon or mirror is bordered by a Chinese silk or brocade. Inside this frame the painting is enclosed by two silk bands of red and yellow colour called 'red yellow rainbow symbolising a divine radiance. A square piece of cloth with figures of dragons or of lotuses applied at the bottom represents the door of the thanka or t' ansgo which signifies the sphere of cosmic waters In early thankas difference between length and breadth is less and border is shown only at the upper and the lower edge, the two sides remaining free. The thanka is stretched between two rods. The upper one is thin and the lower one is round and heavier with wooden or metal knobs at the ends. A thanka is generally provided with a thin piece of silk-covering so that the painting can be protected from damage, dust and dirt when it is not in use.

The thankas are mainly prepared of coarse linen cloth which is thickly covered with a mixture of glue and lime and is polished with shell. The ground thus prepared is made ready for painting. The out-lines of the figures are first traced in charcoal followed by a strengthening with Chinese black or red ink. In Tibet, as a matter of fact, thanka is done by a joint effort mainly by a group of artists or at least by two artists-the master artist makes the design and assistant painter applies the colours on it. The artists are mostly laymen and they work under the supervision of the lamas. These artists move from place to place and work for different monasteries. The back of the paintings, however, contains invocatory mantras, the Buddhist religious formula and sometimes stupa design and auspicious hand-prints of a lama. After the completion of the thanka the consecration or ceremony of prana-pratistha is performed.

As an art form thankas, may be either painted in colour or printed through wooden-blocks. Some thankas are done in appliqué technique.

A group of thankas is again effected on uniformly gilded background. Embroidered thankas were however introduced in Tibet from China whereas thankas made of appliqué work were used from early times in Tibet. There is a reference in the Myancun to a large thanka made in the times of the kings of Gyantse which was shown in public and carried in processions during festivals. This kind of thankas are prepared by various pieces of cloth and sewn again into a sort of patch work com-posing figures of deities and monks. The fifth Dalai Lama also mentions a large thanka in his biography and he also records the names of the artists. The Tashilunpo monastery also possessed a large appliqué thanka which was ceremonially hung on a wall twice a year. Such large appliqué thankas were generally presented to the public at annual festivals. The thankas having a golden background are called gser t' an or golden thankas. Here the figures are sometimes drawn in black lines, sometimes represented in vivid colours. In some golden thankas figures are coloured with gold against a uniform red background.

The colours used in Tibetan thankas have also some symbolical meaning. Each colour of the deity laid down in the thanka is determined by ritual prescriptions. Thankas are generally painted in gouache technique. The pigments which are mainly prepared of mineral and vegetal colours are mixed with lime and glue. The predominant colours used in the thanka are red, dark blue, lime white, green, yellow, vermilion and indigo. Gold is mostly used for decorations mainly for ornaments and backgrounds.

The use of thankas became popular in Tibet with the spread of Indian gnosis in the country that was deriving its sustenance from the Tantra texts. Inspired from the art of Indian scroll paintings or batacitras and their Nepalese counterpart paubas or prabhamandalas the Tibetan thankas reflect the images and symbols of divinities or the lives of saints in vivid colours. The plan of the thanka, the iconography, the delineation of colours and lines are determined by the prescriptions of ritual texts, the Indian works on iconometry.

Scholars are categorically of divided opinions about the origin of the Tibetan thanka. One school advocates a logical conclusion of tracing the origin from the Ajanta frescoes through manuscript illustrations of the Pala-Sena period of Bengal later reoriented by the Nepalese idiom to Tibetan temple-hangings. The illustrations of the palm-leaf manuscripts of Bengal in the 11th-12th century both stylistically and technically have no doubt played a vital role in the preparation of scroll-paintings of Nepal and Tibet, to be specific in the northern and central Asiatic countries. The remarks of Tucci in this regard are also interesting to note.