When I was a child, many boys liked to collect a variety of anime character pictures. For this reason, they always go to buy "crisp noodles".
(Not only do boys like it, I like to buy these plastic pictures too!) ——Sister Yu)
In fact, these plastic pictures arose in Japan in the 1990s, and were originally used by merchants to attract children to buy a "full set" of small foods.
The law has since been used throughout the world, especially in East and Southeast Asia. Therefore, if people from these countries are lucky enough to come to Nepal and see the "Paubha" paintings in the temples full of walls, they can't help but feel inexplicably kind. To be honest, historically, Paubha's paintings have a much longer history than plastic paintings in instant noodles!
Paubha is an abbreviation for Patrabhattaraka, a Sanskrit word meaning "the divine in flat form". According to the Indian Buddhist monk Akaya Asanga (350 BC), every practitioner of the bodhisattva path should study five subjects: philosophy, art, grammar, logic, and medicine. All artists, regardless of the field they choose to dedicate themselves to, must start with basic painting techniques. The original boba paintings were painted using cotton or brocade as a medium. The current preserved boba paintings date back to the 5th century AD. In the past 2,000 years, boba painting is also a kind of art that has evolved, such as some people who went to Nepal, especially in the Kathmandu Valley, and saw the small picture-type boba painting developed in the late 20th century, integrating the Western watercolor painting style, and also looking cute, and can't help but think of the plastic pictures found in the crisp noodles when I was a child. This is the latest form of the development of Boba painting.
Paubha differs from other art forms found in the modern world. Paubha is not art for beauty's sake, but the art of living. The paintings were cleverly created for a special purpose to inspire a state of liberation and the way to get there. In this sense, the artist is the medium of creation. The artist is the one who applies paint to the canvas, but the image he creates has a long lineage of wisdom. It is not necessary to follow the tradition of boba painting in order to make images that represent universal truths; however, by participating in an ancient artistic tradition, Paubha artists were able to use a system of symbols and icons that could be used to read a painting as if they were a text.
Although Boba painting is full of freedom in creation, the principle of creation also needs to be mastered, that is, the "four to": color to, hand to hand, ingredient to, and posture to. Color is the character, especially the historical or legendary sages and great figures have certain color requirements. The gesture of the painter must meet the requirements in order to outline the desired line. Composition to refer to the main picture and peripheral pictures in the painting, foreground and background have requirements, must conform to a certain paradigm, especially to be able to reproduce the scene in the scroll is better. As for the posture, it is necessary to paint such a painting in a serious, humble and easy to draw and meditate posture, such as adding content while meditating.
It is said that if the gods are not depicted according to the standards of portraiture, artists will suffer threefold – they may lose their children, and those around them may die, lose their wealth or fall ill.
Among them, the above five gods cannot be mistaken in color. Clothes can be played freely. Speaking of which, many people also understand which five gods represent in Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, as well as in Nepal, Bhutan, India and other places that can often be seen in China - white, blue, yellow, red, and green.
The paint used in Paubha's paintings is taken from plant essences, which implements the Buddhist ideal of not torturing or slaughtering animals. Understanding Paubha painting is an exotic journey of creative thinking because of its immense philosophical and spiritual power. Becoming a master Boba painter requires great skill and years of dedication.
With the advance of the digital wave, Boba painting is also used as an ornament on more and more websites. This undoubtedly popularized the above art. And in homes, gyms, psychological counseling rooms and museums, schools, companies and other places everywhere, there are also the figures of boba paintings (and their imitations) -
In addition, even this kind of art is increasingly integrated with modern science and technology and social hotspots in the development.
For example, this 16th-century boba painting in the Kathmandu Museum has more two-dimensional lines and treats the Buddha light behind the figures as much as flames.
The 18th-century Boba paintings in the National Museum of Nepal have more Western architectural styles in them, and the Buddha's light has been replaced by a "throne" because it is not easy to handle.
The five Boba paintings on display on the Shrine at the Kathmandu hotel, around the 1970s and 1980s, have many of the abstract styles of late 20th-century Western watercolor paintings.
After entering the 21st century, especially the impact of commercialization and digital technology, Boba painting has more comic dynamics, and the Buddha light behind the characters has become more visually impactful. Behind this is the progress of physics - in the early 20th century, the rise of quantum mechanics revealed the wave-particle duality of light, and the progress of high-speed photography technology has also made people aware of the law of electron motion to excite photons, and photons scatter from light source from thick to light.
In addition, the three-dimensional sense of the character is stronger, the clothing is more "modern", and the sensitive parts are also boldly exposed.
There is also the bold integration of painting themes, elements and techniques with surrounding countries, such as borrowing Chinese paintings and Japanese comics.
On the other hand, Nepal has also strengthened the summary and inheritance of the Technique of Boba Painting. Veteran artists complain that today's young apprentices lack the patience to devote years of studying Paubha painting.
Paubha painting was considered expensive, but it required very high skill and was created using natural colored pigments from real gold and silver dust. Artists need to use thin "000" brushes, even on a large scale, which makes the painting task more laborious.
Today, the University of Kathmandu has made traditional art practice a compulsory degree program for fine arts majors. However, there is no official body that can prove the Paubha painter, but this process is slowly changing as more and more universities are interested in introducing courses specifically aimed at traditional artistic practices.
For travelers to Nepal, the places to admire and buy boba paintings are Taimer, Swayambu and the Great Stupa. High-quality Paubha paintings are exhibited at the National Fine Arts Exhibition in the traditional art category. Other notable collection galleries of Paubha paintings include the Boddhisatva Gallery at the Kathmandu Guesthouse in Kathmandu, Kathmandu, Inar, Patan and the Nepal Art Museum.
Next, please enjoy a group of thangkas numbered 158-401755, the yellow god of wealth of the Nepalese school: