Featured Tibetan Thangka

I bought this yesterday and believe that it is a Tibetan Buddhist Thangka. It’s 80cm long and up to 67 cm wide.

It is designed to be covered with the silk backing cloth with the Buddhist symbol of a Heptagram (not a Star of David) when not in use. It has a mantra written on the back.

I’ve studied the incredibly detailed painting with a magnifying glass and I am sure that there is a lot of hand painting and it may be entirely hand painted.

I understand that there are fakes and would welcome opinions.

 

nice find...!

 

It is a beauty. Himalayan of course, and I agree, more specifically Tibetan.
The Tibetan style of painting is more 'rigid', for lack of a better word, than the Nepali painting style. Besides, Nepali thangkas are backed with typical Nepali printed cloth.

It is a Mandala thangka, but of a type I haven't seen before. A mandala is a representation of Mount Meru, the centre of Buddhist cosmology.
I suspect this was made by a member of one of the lesser known sects.
There is a multitude of figures from Vajrayana Buddhist mythology on it. The one at the top with the many arms and heads is Chenrezi, the Tibetan version of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

There are no fakes, it is simply an ongoing tradition, just like Catholics still carve statues of the Virgin Mary etc. So yours is genuine, and it has some age, probably mid-20th century.

The silk or rayon fabric is like a curtain. When exposing the thangka the fabric is to be folded in neat and regular folds on the front until it reveals the painting. It isn't flipped to the back. Then the sides of the fabric are tied with the silk/rayon ribbons which hang on either side.
On yours the ribbons are used to hang the thangka. The fabric is delicate, so I don't think that is a good idea. It is also not traditional and not nice for the esthetic of the revealed thangka.
Besides, I can see the hanging cord along the top and it looks in good condition, so you can hang the thangka from the cord and return the curtain and ribbons to their proper use. It is best to iron the fabric of both the curtain and the ribbons first to get the proper look.

Below one of my thangkas with the fabric folded and tied with the ribbons. This is the way you tie the ribbons, just fold them from the front up under the folds and back down over the folds so the ribbons hang in front, then slip the ribbons on the inside of the loop, facing the painting.
The thangka hangs in a darkish corner of the room, so not the best picture, but you get the idea:



I cheated a bit, I secured the folds with pins which are hidden behind the ribbons.

When I untie the ribbons the cloth unfolds into horizontal folds, fairly evenly spaced. That is the traditional way, so it is fine.

 

Thank you very much.