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Impressive Buddhist Art Form - Thangka Painting

The finest example of surviving ancient Buddhist art is what we call Thangka Painting. The art is not only alluring to the eyes but also the soul.
The spiritual mind phenomenon occurs when directly connected to the Thangka art. Thangka paintings were developed in those regions where Tibetan Buddhism was practiced including china, Mongolia, Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and parts of Himalayan India.
Origin
 The painting developed from sizably spread traditions Of early Buddhists only survived in a sites of the Ajanta caves in India and the mongao caves in China.
Which has wall paintings and was repository for what the earliest surviving paintings. This style of traditional wall painting is mostly present in monasteries.
 The historians speculate that the art form got appreciation later in the Tubo dynasty Where the legend Tubo king, Songtasan Gambo, is the father of the tradition of Thangka.
In ancient times the guru teaches their discipline and the aim of this type of teaching is the teacher would travel to distinct lands to spread the Buddha’s teaching  and these pictorial scrolls of thangka painting were dominantly used to convey spiritually crucial. Many believed Thangka scrolls as the visual representations of Buddhists scriptures.

Religious significance
Thangkas hold immense religious importance among the traditional Buddhist followers and many even worship the thangka painting during festivals. people of few community believe that convincing thangka would generate spiritual merits.
Types
Thangkas Typically features explosion of bright colors. There are four main kinds of Thangka paintings. Embroidered thangka, lacquered thangka, applique thangka, and precious bead thangka.
Thangka generally fall into eleven categories Mandelas, Tsokshing, Tathagata Buddhas, Patriarchs, Avoliteshvara, Buddha- mother and female Bodhisattvas, Tutelary deities, Dharma protecting deities, Arhats, wrathful deities and wither Bodhisattvas.
Further thangkas are divided into block print, woven thangkas, metal thangkas, paper mache thangkas.
Thangkas nowadays are quite expensive, hence the people uses posters of thangkas as an alternatives to the real thangkas for religious purpose.

Process
The process of painting a thangka is very complicated and precise. The artist prepares the canvas with foundation lines drawing is the beginning.
It As the scrolls are of religious purpose, the purification step is given supreme importance. In this step certain rituals and prayers are performed and the artist prepares the final touch by mixing natural mineral paints. Actually, the process of painting begins taking the period span more than one month to a whole year to complete. 

Present time
 Visually depicting the life of Buddha Thangka painting plays major role. This painting is not only limited to Buddha but also other deities and bodhisattva can be seen. This form of art depicts the history, culture, politics, society and other aspects of people.
In the present time, many people use thangka paintings as an object of decoration, while others use them as the centerpiece or clothing range is created.
Conclusion
The basic objective of the thangka painting is to explore the inner most spiritual self, iconographic ideas and community life.
Thangka can be seen in many regions today. The unique lively vibes oozing out of these painting and the aura of calmness surrounding them is their pride.

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