Awangjinmei

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Awangjinmei, Male, Tibetan, from Lasa, Tibet, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Tibetan Kuangzhiwuyanliao Making Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-199). The tradition is documented in Lasa, Tibet. Within the regional tradition and school record of Tibetan Kuangzhiwuyanliao Making Craftsmanship in Lasa, Tibet: Since ancient times, the pigments used in Tibetan painting have been extracted from local mineral and plant sources on the snowy plateau. Today the center of pigment making is in Lhasa; the Tibetan traditional mineral and plant painting pigment studio hosted by Ngawang Jigme is located at Tibet University and has become a fixed place for cultivating inheritors; the pigments produced under his direction are also used for mural restoration at the Potala Palace and the painting of high-quality thangkas. Relying on their unique property of remaining unchanged for a thousand years, the Tibetan-Buddhist pigments have works painted with these materials spread throughout temples and ancient buildings across Tibet represented by the Potala Palace and the ruins of the Guge Kingdom; although weathered by wind, sun, and the erosion of time for a thousand years, they can still be preserved intact.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Awangjinmei was born in April 1957 in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region; he is of Tibetan ethnicity. He is a national representative bearer of the Making of Tibetan Mineral and Plant Pigments, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a technician in the making of Tibetan mineral and plant pigments. He learned the history of transmission, the processing techniques and the methods of use of traditional Tibetan mineral and plant pigments from veteran artisans such as Danba Raodan, and has persisted in practising the craft ever since, becoming a practitioner who has systematically mastered both the theory and the making process of traditional Tibetan pigments in the Tibetan-inhabited areas. The traditional Tibetan mineral and plant pigments whose production he has supervised have become the pigments of choice for the restoration of murals at cultural heritage sites such as the Potala Palace and for the painting of high-quality thangkas. He is co-author of A Brief History of Tibetan Art and A Dictionary of Tibetan and Chinese Art. Within the documented technical tradition of Tibetan Kuangzhiwuyanliao Making Craftsmanship in Lasa, Tibet: In Tibet, the making and application of mineral and plant painting pigments has a long history of more than two thousand years. Tibetan-Buddhist mineral and plant pigments are brilliant and rich in color and do not fade; plant pigments have pure color, are lightfast and heat-resistant, and are suitable for temple murals, Buddha statues, and temple and house decoration, especially suitable for house pattern decoration exposed outdoors for long periods, occupying an extremely important position in Tibet. Historically, the processing technology of Tibetan-Buddhist mineral and plant painting pigments was mainly distributed in Lhasa, Shigatse, Qamdo, and Shannan, and was mostly transmitted in the form of murals and thangka painters—individuals, families, or painter organizations—processing and making them themselves. But for historical reasons, since the mid-20th century basically no one has made or used these pigments, leaving this unique production process facing the danger of being lost. Preparing one's own pigments is the consistent practice of Tibetan painters: mineral materials are procured locally on the snowy plateau, plant color materials are collected according to the season, and processing is mostly completed by the painter individually, by the family, or by a painter organization, without recourse to outside help. This self-production and self-use method allows the colors of murals to remain unchanged together with the buildings under the plateau's sunlight and temperature differences, and also makes the pigments a kind of private experience between painters and painting schools. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Gathering and grinding minerals": Locally gathered stones are selected, crushed, ground and washed to produce the base colours of murals and thangkas. "Boiling plant dyes": Plant dyes are pure in hue and stable in light and heat, suited to murals, statues and to outdoor decorative painting on temple buildings. "The self-supplied personal tradition": Pigments were made by individual painters, families or painter guilds themselves, so methods varied by lineage; by the mid twentieth century few still made or used them. "Colour for thangka painting": Because mineral and plant colours stay rich and unfaded under strong plateau light, layered thangka colour retains its saturation.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Tibet University established a studio for traditional Tibetan mineral and plant painting pigments under his direction, and that studio has trained numerous successors.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Awangjinmei · National Representative Bearer Archive