thangka - buddhist art from the heart - in shanghai

By Wang Jie, Shanghai Daily, March 21, 2008

Shanghai, China -- Exquisite Tibetan thangkas by a renowned old family of pious Lhasa painters are on display. Part of the sale proceeds will benefit an orphanage outside the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, writes Wang Jie.

In painting a thangka, Tibetan Buddhist devotional art, a pious heart is said to be more important than technique because Buddha will inspire and guide the artist's hand.

A combination of extraordinary piety and skill are displayed in the 30 thangkas at Shanghai High Noon Art and Culture Center in Pudong.

All the works have been created by a famous - but not publicly identified - family in Lhasa that has been painting thangkas for centuries, says curator Zhang Xi.

The family supplied some of the painters who decorated the Potala Palace when it was built, he said, but did not say when. The original structure was built in the 7th century AD; it has been rebuilt and expanded over the centuries.

Some of the sale proceeds will be donated to an orphanage with 83 children, including a two-month-old baby, in the suburbs of Lhasa, according to the curator.

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