Dharmapala Thangka CentreSchool of Thangka Painting


Smoked Thangkas

Comparisation before and after

Strong smoked Milarepa Thangka Medium smoked Cintamani symbol Light smoked Ngor Mandala Strong smoked Wheel of Life Strong smoked Green Tara

Due to the high prices of antique Thangkas you fill find a lot of fake scroll paintings on asian art auctions. Among other things a special smoke technique is used to receive an artificial old impression. For that purpose, the paintings were smoked with a mixture of saw dust [wood] and bones. Doing this it is not possible to get an constant colouring of the surface. Furthermore the fakeThangkas are easily identified because they got an intensive smell of smoke for a long time.

At the Dharmapala Thangka Center, of course, no thangkas are faked in order to offer them as "old". We have developed the technique of smoking and today every customer who likes an antique image of his ordered Thangka has the opportunity to choose between light, medium or strong intensity of smoke coloring. It will change the surface evenly without any spots or irregulaties. After this treatment the Thangka gets a fine smooth antique character. The contrast of all colors becomes lower and a fine smoke tone predominates.

In this special process the Thangka takes upto one up to seven days [due to the intended intensity]. The smoke is created only by hundreds of incenses and other materials, which avoids the strong smoke smell of the standard saw dust and bone process.

Five examples show the effects of incense respectively before and after:

  1. Milarepa Thangka [strong incense]
  2. Tsagli mit einem Cintamani Symbol [medium incense]
  3. Ngor Mandala [light incense]
  4. Wheel of Life [strong incense]
  5. Green Tara [strong incense]

Please take into account that the photos can not fully reflect the excellent result of the smoking process.


 
Two Videos from the fumigation
  
Video 1 Video 2