Tibetan Thangka
01 · Historical Records
Hualong thangka originated at Saizhi Monastery in Jinyuan Township, Hualong Hui Autonomous County, Haidong City, Qinghai Province. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, monasteries were successively built in the Hehuang region, providing sustained demand for thangka and mural painting. After the Qing dynasty, Hualong painters, on the basis of inheriting the Miantang and Qenzie painting styles of Ü-Tsang, absorbed the line work and coloring of gongbi heavy-color painting from the Han areas of Hehuang, gradually forming the local character of the Tsongkha Bairi Guang thangka. Most inheritors of Hualong thangka come from the villages and towns around Jinyuan Township. In addition to master-apprentice transmission, there is also family transmission from generation to generation, and it has now been passed down five generations.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Hualong thangka is a form of Tibetan thangka art with a history of more than 300 years, mainly distributed in more than ten townships including Jinyuan Township, Hualong Hui Autonomous County, Haidong City, Qinghai Province, and radiating to the Hehuang (Tsongkha) region of Qinghai. Since the 11th Bairi Guang tulku of Saizhi Monastery promoted thangka, successive Bairi Guang tulkus have inherited and developed it; by the time of the 14th Bairi Guang tulku, Gendun Ngawang Dandin, thangka painting art reached its peak, and the Hualong Tsongkha Bairi Guang thangka style was finally formed. Hualong thangka is a distinctive form of painting art in Tibetan culture. Centered on painting, it highlights the regional style of thangka while also extending into fields such as murals, sculpture, woodblock printing, mandalas, and architectural design, providing artistic nourishment to various art forms. Hualong thangka has a rich religious character and a unique artistic style, depicting the sacred world of the Buddha with abundant colors. Its requirements for painting are strict and its procedures complex; it must follow the ritual rules set out in the scriptures and the instructions of the lama, including pre-painting rituals, making the painting cloth, composing and drafting, outlining to fix the form, coloring and dyeing, applying gold and delineating the eyes, opening the eyes, mounting, and consecration. Its works are comprehensive and diverse in expressive form: religious thangkas depicting Tibetan Buddhism and various deities; Tibetan medicine, Tibetan materia medica, and astronomy-calendrical calculation thangkas reflecting achievements in natural science; historical thangkas recording historical events; and biographical thangkas recording the lives of figures. Major works include The Complete Merits of Tsongkhapa, The Pure Land of Akshobhya, Mandala, and the colored paintings of scripture halls. Its materials are costly and its works consummate and exquisite, with unique artistic charm; it displays the essence of traditional Tibetan fine arts and has extremely high artistic value.
Sazhi monastery and the Peled Ngarig incarnations
From the eleventh Peled Ngarig of Sazhi monastery, who promoted scroll painting, successive incarnations carried it on until under the fourteenth, Khedrub Ngawang Tendai, the art peaked and the Tsongkha Peled Ngarig style took shape.
From the opening rite to mounting and consecration
Drawing is strict and complex, governed by scriptural rule and the master's instruction: a rite before painting, preparing the canvas, drafting, fixing the line, colouring and dyeing, laying gold and drawing the eyes, opening the eyes, mounting and consecration.
Medical, pharmacological and calendrical scrolls
Its output is varied: religious scrolls of Buddhist deities, scrolls of natural knowledge in Tibetan medicine, pharmacology and calendrical astronomy, historical scrolls of events and biographical scrolls of persons.
The Merits of Tsongkhapa, the Pure Land of Akshobhya and the Mandala
The chief works of Hualong scroll painting, besides the polychromy of assembly halls; costly materials and refined execution extend its influence to mural, sculpture, woodcut, mandala and architectural design.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its subject matter is extremely broad, centered on religion and involving history, economy, culture, folk legends, secular life, architecture, medicine, astronomy, and calendrical calculation, with typical regional cultural characteristics.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka · Tibetan Thangka.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The transmission and spread of Hualong thangka in the Hualong region has a long history. Hualong Tsongkha Bairi Guang thangka is transmitted mainly through the master-apprentice method and has been passed down five generations to date. Hualong thangka bears the imprint of the Tibetan people's religious beliefs and of social and historical development, and is of important value for studying the origins, evolution, transmission, and current state of Tibetan Buddhist art in the Hualong region. It is painted entirely by hand, meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the people, and has considerable economic and social value.
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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