Thangka Materials & Colors

All colors and substrates in Thangka are strictly derived from natural minerals, plants, animal materials, and precious metals, reflecting reverence and admiration for the beauty of natural origins. The traditional Tibetan mineral and plant pigment making technique was inscribed on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2011. Traditional Thangka painters make and mix their own pigments, starting with simply processed ores and relying entirely on personal experience to process them into pigments. A good Thangka is generally painted with more than 30 colors, some with as many as 50, among which white, yellow, red, and blue are the four most common basic colors.