There are very few thangka survivors in the Tubo period, and even have not yet been reported, and in recent years, the "Treasures of Tibet" album published by Chaohua Publishing House has selected several thangkas from Ali Torin Monastery as marked as the Tubo era, and its era still needs to be examined. In the Tubo era, the number of Thangka was small at that time, and then due to the wave of Langdarma's destruction of Buddhism, the division of the Tubo regime after the collapse, the continuous war and various factors, so it is rare that the Thangka in the Tubo period can be preserved to this day.
So what was the style of Thangka art in the Tubo period? Over the years, people have tried to find their inheritance relationships and traces in Dunhuang art. Dunhuang is located in the west, adjacent to the Tibetan area in the south, the Middle Tang Dynasty Tubo occupied Dunhuang for more than half a century, Dunhuang has also become a Buddhist holy place in Tubo, leaving 92 caves belonging to the Tubo occupation period in the Mogao Caves, although some caves such as Cave 159 have the image of "Tubo Zampuli Buddha", but these murals are mostly traditional Dunhuang art styles. Some scholars believe that the murals that belong to the characteristics of Tubo are only the "Eight Bodhisattva Mandalas" on the main wall of Cave 25 of Yulin Cave, which provides us with valuable physical materials for understanding the artistic appearance of the Tubo Dynasty.
The discovery of the Tibetan Scripture Cave in 1900, a large number of paintings painted in the 8th-11th centuries were reproduced, from the hundreds of paintings that were fraudulently bought by Stein and Bo Xihe, there are dozens of works that belong to the characteristics of the Tubo painting style, such as the "Guanyin Mandala" in the British Museum, the sackcloth coloring, the bodhisattva high bun three-flower crown, the upper body naked, the lower scarf, the flesh color, the head light and the body light are oval. The other "Ruyi Wheel Guanyin Silk Cord" wears a Buddha crown, has six golden arms, and sits half-on-the-foot. The paper version of "Void Hidden Bodhisattva" has a Tibetan inscription, and another paper version of "Guanyin Bodhisattva Statue" is mostly the above characteristics. Some experts believe that these are pastel copies of the murals of the Tubo period. Some of the figures in these paintings have many similarities with the later thangka painting methods, such as character modeling, painting methods, composition, and coloring.
In the collection of the Louvre in France, a painting of the Eight Mandalas of the Lotus Department painted in the middle of the 8th century, is 88 cm high and 60 cm wide. The eight tantric statues depicted on the picture are tall in the middle, holding a dharma instrument in four arms, sitting on their knees, and seven bodhisattvas and protectors symmetrically distributed on both sides and the lower part, with a small body. They all wear a crown on their heads, wide shoulders and thin waist, and sit on a lotus seat with an oval backlight on their backs. The red-faced, three-eyed, four-armed Protector of the Fa in the lower left, holding a hip staff in his hand, opened his eyes in anger. This painting is concise, the color is simple, mainly red, white, yellow, blue, black, the main figure is black, obviously the primary color has been oxidized over time, and the background color is more intense. It is dotted with four small white flowers, and from its symmetrical composition, the arrangement of statues, the costumes, shapes, and magic tools of the figures, there are many striking similarities with thangka's painting method.
In addition, Stein found several Tibetan-style paintings in the Cave. In his Archaeological Atlas of the Western Regions, he wrote: "There are four very distinctive paintings, they are the only Tibetan style works in the collection, these paintings are difficult to classify into other categories, and one of them is not a bodhisattva, but a goddess Dora." One of them is a complete linen painting with the color of which is coated with a layer of white wax in glue. It embodies the mature Tibetan style, probably the earliest surviving Tibetan style painting, in the middle of which is the goddess Dora sitting on a lotus flower floating in the water, surrounded by eight small Dora statues, scattered between some scenes of distress and escape. In the foreground is painted a striking ghost riding on a horse. There is also a purely Tibetan style painting of The Great Painting, with Guanyin painted on a tightly woven linen cloth, and the statue of Guanyin is coated with a rectangular frame covered with small bodhisattva statues and dharma vessels. In addition, there are two large remaining fragments of large paper paintings painted in a purely Tibetan style, one of which is probably the tantric god mandala, and the other is only a few seated bodhisattvas. Stein's description of these four paintings, especially the one of the goddess Dora, also known as "Saving Tara", is a Tibetan Buddhist goddess. It is said that guanyin tears are illusionary to save suffering and save the Buddha-figures. There are 21 kinds of color distinctions, and white and green Tara are the most common, green Tara can save lions, elephants, snakes, water, fire, thieves, prisons, and eight kinds of disasters caused by non-humans. Surrounded by eight little Doro scattered between some of the scenes of distress and escape. From its material texture, background color treatment to the content of the painting and the composition characteristics, we can see that this is the remains of the early Thangka in Dunhuang. However, the book does not attach pictures, and it is not known whether these four Tibetan-style paintings were published or not.
From the above Paintings of Tubo Characteristics in the British Museum and the Louvre Museum, as well as the four Tibetan paintings discussed by Stein, it can be clearly seen that this Indian, Nepalese, and even Tibetan style painting or thangka in the Tubo period has been introduced to Dunhuang. From these artistic styles and the Tibetan thangka discovered later, we can always find their origins and artistic inheritance. The development of Buddhist art in Dunhuang over the centuries has reached the point where it has reached the point of pure fire in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Buddhism was only introduced to Tibet for nearly a hundred years. The early introduction of Buddhist painting was still in the stage of imitating foreign paintings, or absorbing the artistic styles of India and Nepal. During the tubo rule of Dunhuang, this Buddhist art was also brought to Dunhuang, making Dunhuang art diverse.
Next, please enjoy a group of white six-armed Maha Gala numbered 155-280512:
