Thangka
Hand-painted and appliqué scroll paintings from the Himalaya. This category is at research stage: we publish the documented schools, the admission conditions and the compliance limits, with no pieces and no illustrations shown.
In research · Lhasa, Shigatse and Chamdo, Tibet; Rebgong (Tongren), Qinghai; Kathmandu, Nepal as comparison
The craft
Mineral-pigment hand painting on cotton or silk with gold line work, and appliqué (dui xiu) thangka.
Tibetan thangka - the Menri, Khyenri and Karma Gadri schools - entered China's first national-level intangible heritage list in 2006; the Mensar school followed in 2010 and Lhasa appliqué thangka in 2021. No workshop or inheritor has been contracted, so no maker-level claim is made here.
Maker series: Maker selection in progress.
What the work is about
Thangka divides by ground and technique: hand painting in mineral pigments on cotton or silk with gold line work; appliqué, where cut and padded fabric builds a relief image; and printed reproductions at the low end. A large appliqué piece can take close to two years and is in chronically short supply.
The price structure is the clearest argument against any fixed multiplier. A printed souvenir sits near ¥50, a standard hand-painted scroll near the Etsy median of about $145, a master's work at auction near ¥745,000. Four-channel comparison, piece by piece, is the only honest way to place a work.
Religious framing is the hard constraint. Any future listing would be presented as handmade Tibetan decorative art: no claims of religious efficacy, no unverifiable monastic provenance, no restricted tantric imagery, and per-destination checks on heavy metals, material declarations and markets that restrict religious figurative art.
In preparation · no pieces listed
We do not list objects we cannot show
This category is being assessed against the same 7-dimension model used for the porcelain line. A named maker, real object photography, measured dimensions and the documents below come before any listing.
Register an interestAdmission criteria
What has to be true before a piece from this category can appear here.
- A named living painter or appliqué workshop with a signed supply agreement covering price, lead time, minimum order and repeat supply
- Hand painting in mineral pigments or genuine appliqué work declared as such; printed reproductions are not offered in this line
- Described as handmade Tibetan decorative art; no claims of religious efficacy, monastic provenance or restricted imagery
- Import checks per destination: EU REACH heavy metals, US USDA-APHIS material declaration, and documented restrictions on religious figurative art in some markets
- Real object photography, measured dimensions and a signed maker record before any listing
Evidence on hand
Stated as fact only where a document or a photograph can be shown.
- No pieces are listed and no illustrations are published for this category. The research file dated 2026-11-12 documents five painting schools, appliqué thangka, four-channel price sampling and a compliance checklist; no supply agreement or inheritor verification has been completed.
Guide prices, planned price bands, category scores and internal cost data are not published. The compliance limits stated here come from dated research files and describe conditions for a future listing - not a claim that any piece has passed them.