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Published: June 28th 2014
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photo I copied to paint
As you can see, this was an intricate design and an ambitious project for six 7 hour days. SIX DAYS OF THANKA SCHOOL
When I arrived at the airport in Kathmandu, ready to move on to Maldives for some diving, I learned that I was a week early for my departure. A simple mistake by my booking agent but it seemed like a monumental error at the time. I had already said my good-byes in Thamel, the tourist area I had been based at in Kathmandu so I decided to take a six day thanka painting class in Paten; I knew Bhaktapur had classes but lodging there was much more expensive. I felt Paten was a better choice. My taxi driver found me a hotel at last, and introduced me to the Lama who would supervise my painting.
Thankas are Buddhist religious paintings and are sold everywhere in Nepal. Some are framed and some are quilted within a beautiful brocade “frame” in rich hues. A gold drape is sewn at the top of these fabric framed thankas and is tied above the thanka when it is displayed. The drape can be released to hide the thanka when it is not being used for meditation, to protect it from dust or sun. These paintings
Bibek Lama, my instructor in Tibetan thanka painting
Bibek sits for hours and paints thankas. Thankas are religious paintings used for meditation. are done on cotton with a poster/fabric paint mixture and are very durable. They are intricate and beautifully shaded and can take weeks to months to finish. Watching my instructor execute the tiny details was a pleasure.
The Lama did not think six days was enough time, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish my painting, but I wanted a diversion and was willing to learn whatever I could in that amount of time. Every morning for six days I got up, ordered breakfast, read a little or checked my emails, and then walked about twenty minutes to Durbar Square for my class. The hours were 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
I was the only student at this time. Bibek Lama, the Lama’s son-in-law, gave me a piece of cotton dipped in Yak glue, some paints, a pencil, an art eraser and paint brushes. We stretched the cotton on a piece of paneling with wrapping tape. Then he showed me a thanka on the wall and told me to sketch it. After two hours I realized this was futile and erased the whole thing. I asked him for some examples to choose
Close-up of Bibek's current thanka
The technique requires color, shading, and fine lining and is a lengthy project. The final process is adding gold accents, and yet more lining.
from and picked the one with the least detail; it was still very intricate. This time I divided my “canvas” into 3” squares and sketched a reasonable likeness of the photo. There was so much tiny detail, I would almost despair. Then I would sit back and stretch, and continue.
Once I had the sketch, Bibek Lama had me paint the sky. There was a lot of sky and he used a very small brush and tiny brush strokes. It required lots of repainting, barely touching the tiny white spots, the paint didn’t cover the first or second or twelfth time I painted them. You must touch the canvas only once, and wait for it to dry. If it still is not covered you repeat the process. It takes very good eyesight to see the white spots and a lot of patience to cover them.
Thankas are all about shading. So the blue had to be repeatedly applied to get a rich dark shade, and each coat had to be carefully blended, lighter and lighter as it progressed down the painting. When I grew weary and disheartened I started painting the sea at the
My unfinished thanka
This is the result of 42 hours of painting. I am looking forward to finishing it when I get back home. bottom of the sketch. That went much better because it was a smaller area, but I still painted only blue for three days. Finally we moved on to do the dais where the goddess sits. It has lotus leaves or lotus blossoms around the bottom and the shading was even more difficult. The same colors, green, orange, and red were used on the fruit offering in front of the dais. Which reminds me, finally I realized that Bibek Lama and I were seeing different photos. I am as close to color blind as women get, so where I was seeing lavender he was seeing blue, gold was actually pink, and pink was actually yellow. The fourth day I painted the halos in burnt orange and white, no confusion there.
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