Wudaoying: hipper by the day
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1. The diligent gallery owner
Liu Chang, the owner/shopkeeper/buyer of Sattva Gallery & Boutique, was not messing around when she gave her gallery its slogan, "the way Tibetan art should be”. Liu has been into Thangka for five years, regularly jumping on trains to small villages in Qinghai where the best Thangka artists are. She now goes there about every three months to retrieve fine Tibetan art specially made for her clients.
Liu quit her previous job and started Sattva, a gallery dedicated to selling Thangka art, this past May. In Tibetan the word "thang"means flat, thus a Thangka is a painted or flat embroidered Buddhist banner that hangs in a monastery or from a family altar. It can also be rolled up when not required for display.
Thangka are really precious, Liu explained to the Global Times, because their creation is a time consuming handmade art. Above all, non-industrial minerals and organic paints and colors must be used. "Dependable and skilled craftsmen are also important,"Liu said, her face serious. "But I hate impure materials, like adding copper to gold. It sparkles, but the color invades and turns it ugly. I can't bear that, and neither do my clients, so what I do to make sure is to buy pure mineral powder, like gold and silver powder, myself."Liu provides the craftsmen with these pure materials and reminds them in no uncertain terms not to cross her, because if they substitute materials, "once I tell the difference, the deal would end forever."
Being madly sincere about these materials means Liu needs to go far to buy "the best”. For example, "only Nanjing and Nepal have the best quality gold. It's expensive, but it has to been done that way."
Tourist customers tend to buy Chinese water-ink paintings, as they're easy to roll up and take with them. "As for expats in Beijing, a lot of them buy yak wool rugs and Thangkas for home decoration,"Liu said.
Sattva Gallery & Boutique
Address: No. 60 (East) Wudaoying Hutong
Tel: 6406-5363
Hours: 11 am- 9 pm (closed on Monday)
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