Hundreds of the author's line drawings depict all the major Tibetan symbols and motifs—landscapes, deities, animals, plants, gurus, mudras (ritual hand gestures), dragons, and other mythic creatures—ranging from complex mythological scenes to small, simple ornaments..
The vast majority of surviving Tibetan art created before the mid-20th century is religious, with the main forms being thangka, paintings on cloth, mostly in a technique described as gouache or distemper, Tibetan Buddhist wall paintings, and small statues in bronze, or large ones in clay, stucco or wood..
Tibetan visual art consists primarily of murals, thangka (painted religious scrolls), Buddhist sculpture and ritual objects, and was primarily created to be used in religious rituals and education..
Tibetan art comprises ancient pre-Buddhist decorative and domestic crafts and the all-pervading religious art that was gradually introduced from the 8th century onward from surrounding Buddhist countries and developed subsequently as recognizably distinct Tibetan imagery, sculpture, and decorative architectural motifs..
The thangka is very much a part of Sikkimese Buddhism and it is painted in the traditional Tibetan style.
A thangka could depict a deity, a mandala (geometric figure with symbolic meaning that is also used as an aid in meditation), or a spiritually significant event from the life of a Buddhist master..
Thangka painting is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist art form which depicts Buddhist deities.
The deities must be made in very specific proportions, as it is believed that the deities can inhabit the paintings and thus the painting must be of the utmost beauty..
By the fourteenth century, stylistic influences from Nepal and China became dominant, and in the fifteenth century these fused into a truly Tibetan synthesis..
Contemporary Tibetan art includes
modern thangka (religious scroll paintings) that resemble ancient thangka
As well as radical
Avant-garde
Works. Many artistsEspecially in monasteries
Continue to produce traditional Tibetan styles
Which are preferred for religious use
And also have markets inside and outside the Tibetan diaspora.
The decoration includes
skulls and skeletons. 14th-century mandala of Jnanadakini. Thangka
74.9 x 83.8 cm
Perhaps painted in Tibet by a Nepali. A high proportion of both thangkas and sculptures have as their main subject a single sacred figure
Or two of them embracing in the yab-yum position.
Some differences are easier to see:
Bon art uses the swastika rather than the vajra as a symbol of wisdom
And although their chorten (stupas) are "almost identical"
Bon devotees walk round them in the opposite direction (anti-clockwise) to Buddhists.
The most common material for smaller sculptures is metal
Usually "bronze"
Which is often gilded. Modern scientific analysis shows that the actual compositions of Tibetan "bronze" (or copper alloy) are even more variable than in bronze from other parts of the world
Being very often brass and sometimes almost pure copper.
