Types

Applique
tangkas created with glued or sewn strips of cloth.

Embroidery
hand embroidered tangkas.

Woven Tangkas
loom woven tangkas of deities and portraits of the various Panchen Lamas.

Block Prints
images of black ink pressed onto paper or cloth from carved wooden blocks.

Prayer Flags
cotton prints imprinted from carved wooden blocks and intended to hang in the wind.

Book Covers
ornately carved and painted.

Illuminated Manuscripts
small illustrations for decorating book pages.

Drawings
artist sketch books and drawings prior to painting.

Iconometry
diagrams for calculating the correct measurement and proporation of portrait figures and deities.

Black Background
a painting type used for accentuating the fierceness of wrathful subjects.

Painted Prints (Parma)
painted prints: pressed from wood blocks onto cotton then painted and framed as tangkas.

Charts
astrological, medical and protective talismans.

Coloured Background
the majority of Himalayan & Tibetan paintings belong to this classification of coloured tangka.

Gold Background
a special treatment for peaceful deities, long-life deities and buddhas.

Initiation Cards
(Tibetan: tsagli) small painted cards used during Tantric initiation ceremonies.

Landscapes
scenic landscape vistas generally painted on a horizontal cotton canvas.

Mandala
geometric models of a pure universe; the abode of archetypal deities.

Murals
wall paintings: the principal art form of Buddhist & Bon religious establishments.

Pauba
the scroll paintings of the Kathmandu Valley.

Red Background
paintings with a ground of vermillion, iron oxide.

Bronze
metalwork of all types from the Himalayan region.

Masks
ritual and dance masks; carved from wood or constructed with papier-mache.

Repousse: Hammered Metal
medallions, decorations, including images of deities.

Stone
stone carvings of noted religious figures and deities.

Stone: Gandharan
stone and clay sculpture of Gandhara: Northern Pakistan & Afghanistan 200 B.C - 600 A.D.

Tsa Tsa: Stamped Clay
clay images shaped from molds often containing the ashes of celebrated teachers.

Wood
carved wooden images of deities and notable lamas.