Main Tools
Creating an exquisite Thangka requires a variety of tools, including picture frames, canvases, tension threads, stretching frames, brushes, canvas-polishing stones, porcelain bowls, straightedges, compasses, colored threads, charcoal pencils, brush pens, and outlining pens. During the painting process, traditional artists usually make their own picture frames, canvases, various painting brushes, and even boil and dry glue and prepare pigments themselves.
Picture Frames and Easels
Thangkas are mostly painted on cloth. In the past, linen or coarse cloth was commonly used; now, white cotton cloth is preferred. When painting a Thangka, the cloth must be evenly stretched and fastened to a wooden picture frame. This ensures the edges of the cloth stay straight and the fabric’s weave is fully stretched out. Only when the cloth surface is flat can the gluing and sizing achieve good results, leading to better color application.
In the past, master Thangka painters often used double-layered frames: the outer layer was a rectangular frame made by joining four rectangular wooden planks, while the inner layer involved sewing the four sides of a pre-sized rectangular piece of cloth evenly onto thin wooden sticks (about the thickness of a finger), forming a double-layered structure. Today, the inner thin sticks are generally omitted; instead, the pre-sized cloth is sewn directly onto the outer wooden frame, resulting in a single-layered frame. Some artists now also use easels, similar to those used for oil painting.
Tension Threads and Thangka Cloth
To fasten the white cotton cloth flat and securely to the picture frame, tension threads are essential. Commercially available chemical-based threads cannot be used for this purpose, as they tend to loosen when exposed to sunlight, failing to meet the requirements for Thangka painting.
Thangka artists typically use white cotton threads or self-twisted hemp threads, referred to in Tibetan as "Jiangshigu". When sewing the threads through the cloth onto the frame, they must be wrapped symmetrically and evenly at 10-centimeter intervals. This ensures the canvas is tightly stretched and the cloth surface remains flat.
The Thangka canvas also undergoes a series of treatments before use. White cotton cloth must be glued, brushed with glue, coated with white lime powder, and polished with a stone or the rim of a bowl. This process makes the cloth surface flat and smooth, with no visible fabric weave, before it is sewn onto the easel.
Painting Brushes: Charcoal Pencils and Brush Pens
Painting a Thangka requires various types of brushes: charcoal pencils or regular pencils for sketching, outlining pens for line work, and small flat brushes for coloring.
Many traditional artists still use self-made charcoal pencils for sketching today, as they are easier to modify. With a light scrape of a thin wooden stick, unwanted charcoal marks can be removed without damaging the stretched canvas. In contrast, using an eraser on pencil marks often leaves indentations on the canvas or makes the surface uneven, loose, or rough.
Making charcoal pencils is not complicated. If commercial charcoal is available, it can be sharpened with a knife and used directly. If not, thin sticks of birch or poplar wood are split into pencil-shaped pieces, placed in an iron pipe (sealed at both ends with mud), and heated over a fire for 3-4 hours. After heating, the sticks are buried in soil to cool before being used.
For line work and coloring, brush pens are used. Traditional Thangka artists were very particular about these brushes: the bristles must be from the base of a strong horse’s neck, and ideally, the horse should be thin—thinner horses produce bristles with the optimal softness and hardness for even brushwork. Bristles are collected in March or April each year, when horses naturally shed their hair, and gently plucked by hand.
The brush handles also have specific requirements: they must be made of cypress wood (to absorb sweat from the hands), and the brush heads should be thick at the base and gradually thinner toward the tip for easier application of force.
Compasses: Wooden Compasses
To find the center of the canvas, traditional Thangka artists use a "flicking" method: they hold a colored red string with both hands, align it with the corners of the canvas, bite the middle of the string, and gently flick it—leaving a red line mark on the canvas.
The intersection of two such diagonal lines marks the center of the canvas. Once the center is identified, a self-made wooden compass is used to mark the position of the main deity (as needed).
The compasses made by Thangka artists are entirely wooden—even the needle tip is wooden—to avoid damaging the canvas. Commercial metal-tipped compasses, by contrast, easily pierce holes in the cloth.
Extended Reading
The magnificent Thangka is actually created using simple, traditional tools. This ancient art form has been passed down through generations with little change. Many traditional artists still use self-made charcoal pencils for sketching (due to their ease of modification), while modern tools like regular pencils are only used for temporary work. They make their own picture frames and brush handles from locally sourced birch and poplar wood; brush bristles come from animals such as horses, deer, sheep, weasels, and cats; and even compasses are handcrafted.