STORY OF THANKAS

In Buddhist practice the art of painting is regarded s one of the important constituents of the five great subjects of learning. According to Acharya Asanga, every practitioners of the Bodhisattva path should learn five subjects: Philosophy, Art, Grammar, Logic and Medicine. Furthermore, the discipline of Art has many branches, namely painting, sculpture, carving, engraving and so forth. Painting is said by Nagnajit to be the best of these arts. Buddhist painting may have begun in the lifetime of the historical Buddha. While some scholars maintain the view that it took shape a couple of centuries later, there are some textual materials, which suggest that, the painting of Buddhist themes began during the Buddha's lifetime. But according to some other scholars, after a couple of centuries later of Buddha's death, when people have started to go to pilgrimage, they need to carry a statue along with them for Puja which was very uncomfortable because of it's weight. So they have started to paint Buddha and other deities figure on cotton canvas, which became more convenient for them in comparing to carry one metal statue. These days Thanka paintings are very essential for every Buddhist family as well to every practitioners of Buddhism. Every Buddhist family keeps one painting of Buddha or other deity at home and prays on it. Monks use it for their practice and also for meditation. There are also many Thanka paintings hanged on the walls of every monastery.