"The businessmen believe the religious paintings may bring them prosperity and blessings. So if they order Thangkas from me, I ask about their family and their wishes before I decide what to paint."

Tibetan characteristics

He further explained: "If the buyer's business is not so good, I will paint Yellow Jambhala, the first wealthy deity; if the buyer has a son applying for college, I will paint Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom; if the buyer wishes family members will be healthy, I choose to paint White Tara for him, the goddess bringing health, strength, longevity and beauty."

Zhao said some figures in Thangkas are no longer painted with strong Tibetan characteristics - some goddesses look more like pretty, modern Han women. Some deities depicted in the sutra as ugly and frightening are no longer painted that way.

Many tourists like to buy Thangka paintings as souvenirs, since their mineral pigments ensure that the colors will never fade, said Zhao. "As a souvenir, it should be pretty. Who would choose a Thangka with a frightening deity?" he said.

For Targyea, the most disturbing phenomenon is that some painters do not keep the rules of Thangka paintings. "A White Tara must be holding a branch of utpala, not a sword," he said. "Maybe some painters do not know the rules."

Some painters want to break the rules, and they paint real people and railways. Last year, a 195.6-meter-long Thangka entitled "Sky Road," said to be the first to depict the modern life of Tibetans and portray the Qinghai-Tibet railway and the beautiful scenery along the line, made its debut at the Qinghai International Thangka Arts and Cultural Heritage Expo.

"Sky Road" aroused praise and doubts. Some experts and painters believed it was just a product of a commercial activity.

"If a Thangka does not feature religious themes, can it be called a Thangka?" said Xihdao.

But such "Thangkas" are still being made, with subjects ranging from Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), to China's reform and opening up in the 1980s.

For Zhao, Thangkas should be important teaching tools in spreading Buddhism, because the scroll paintings are easily rolled and transported from monastery to monastery. "But the market has driven Thangkas far from their origins," said Zhao.

Thangka paintings have sprung up like mushrooms in recent years, and so have problems.

Targyea said that there was one Thangka school in Rekong, but most young painters "learn" how to paint by themselves.

It usually takes Thangka painters seven or eight years to learn from their masters before they can work independently, recalled Targyea.

Some agencies have opened in Rekong and the provincial capital Xining. These agencies buy Thangkas from painters at low prices and re-sell them at high prices.

Zhao said that most inferior Thangkas were sold at bargain prices, since the average consumers cannot tell the difference.

"If this situation goes on, good Thangkas won't be available anymore," he said. "The market needs to be regulated."

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2009)