Tibetan Thangka
01 · Historical Records
The Mensar school of thangka painting is said to have arisen in the mid-17th century CE and is distributed mainly in Shigatse City, Tibet Autonomous Region, and its surrounding areas. The founder of the Mensar school was Zhugu Quyingjiacuo (Chokyi Gyatso), the personal painter of the Fourth Panchen Lama. Building on the Mentang school, he absorbed more of the forms, compositions, and techniques of Chinese fine-brush (gongbi) painting — figures, landscapes, and pavilions and towers — and added many individualistic elements. The art of the thangka Mensar school originated in the 17th century CE; by the 19th century it had matured and entered a flourishing period. Through decades of tireless work by renowned painting masters of earlier generations such as Gaqin Luosang Pingcuo, Dawa Dondrup, and Adun, young Mensar inheritors such as Luobusida were trained.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Historically, the Tibetan thangka Mensar school spread to Lhasa, Shannan, Chamdo, and other places; at its height it had more than a thousand painting workshops. His works in painting, craft, and sculpture are mostly held in famous palaces and monasteries such as the Potala Palace, Tashilhunpo Monastery, and Shalu Monastery. Mensar school thangkas have rigorous compositions, bright colors, richly varied lines, and meticulous gold outlining; the portrayal of character is especially natural and subtle. The school's imagery is strictly canonical; compared with traditional block-area modeling, it places particular emphasis on the use of line — neat, flowing lines, with lively, bright, richly varied coloring. The range of subjects is very broad, including portraits of religious teachers (lamas), buddhas, yidam (tutelary deities), bodhisattvas, and dharmapalas, as well as biographies, history, medicine, and folk customs.
Tulku Chöying Gyatso
The school arose in the mid-seventeenth century under Tulku Chöying Gyatso, personal painter to the fourth Panchen Lama, who on a Menthang basis took much from fine-line figure, landscape and architecture painting and added strongly personal elements.
Gachen Lobsang Phuntsok and Norbu Sidar
Mature and flourishing by the nineteenth century, the school was carried by masters such as Gachen Lobsang Phuntsok, Dawa Döndrub and Adun, who trained younger inheritors including Norbu Sidar.
Tsangtri, the Tsang school
The Mensar school, also called the new Menthang, is known in Tibetan texts and locally as Tsangtri, tsang meaning the Shigatse region and tri a school — hence its heartland around Shigatse.
Works kept in the Potala and Tashilhunpo
The school spread to Lhasa, Lhoka and Chamdo and at its height counted over a thousand workshops; its paintings, crafts and sculpture are mostly kept in the Potala, Tashilhunpo and Shalu.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Tibetan thangka Mensar school, also called the New Mentang school, is known in ancient Tibetan texts and among the people as "Zangchi": "Zang" refers to the Shigatse area of Tibet, and "chi" means school of painting.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
It has extremely high value for the study of Tibetan history, culture, fine art, and religion. In recent years, owing to social change, the successive passing of older painters, and the impact of outside cultures, the art of the Mensar school of traditional Tibetan painting has been greatly affected, and the traditional art faces the danger of dying out. Danba Raodan (related inheritor, official archive record): male, Tibetan, born in 1941, from Tibet. In order to learn about Buddhism, he entered the Sera Mahayana College at the age of fifteen, where he systematically studied logic (pramana), Buddhist doctrine, and painting theory. In the 1980s he was transferred to the Gesar Research Office of the Tibet Normal College, where he painted a large number of color illustrations with a strong Tibetan painting character for the Epic of King Gesar. The thangkas he painted are strictly canonical, with delicate, magnificent coloring in which azurite blue and malachite green are especially prominent. His main representative works include Great Wrathful Vajra (Yamantaka), The Earth, Cloth-Bag Monk, and Palden Lhamo. Gesang Cidan (related inheritor, official archive record): male, Tibetan, born in 1958, from Tibet. From 1971 to 1974 he took part in the mural restoration project at the Jokhang Temple, studying under numerous experts in Tibetan traditional painting the techniques of restoring and painting ancient Tibetan murals, the methods of preparing Tibetan painting pigments, and traditional Tibetan arts and crafts techniques. In 1981 he was admitted to the undergraduate fine arts class of the Department of Letters and Physical Education at the Tibet Normal College, but was later forced to drop out for reasons beyond his control. In 1983 he began to receive painstaking guidance from Professor Danba Raodan, systematically studying traditional Tibetan fine art techniques and art history and theory. He emphasizes the use of line, with lively, richly varied coloring; his representative works include Lotus-Net Avalokitesvara, Dharmapala, and the Mandala of the Eight Auspicious Symbols.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Danbaraodan 01-0063
- Gesangcidan 01-0064
- Yandengzeren 04-1748
- Luobusida 04-1749
- Xirebu 04-1750
- Jiumai 04-1751
- Lameng 05-2581
- Cirenluobu 05-2582
- Zhaxi 05-2583
- Gade 05-2584
- Mimaciren 05-2585
- Jiaobajiabu 05-2586
- Qujiu
- Gesang
- Nima
- Tudengweise
- Gamadanzeng
- Luozhubasong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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