Tibetan art is the visual and symbolic interpretation of the Buddha's teachings and philosophy. Imagery is used to guide and support an individual's spiritual progress.

The art is functional, never signed and the strict ethos is on accuracy and intricacy, dollowing the traditional rules of iconometry to ensure spiritually beneficial images are created. As such the true techniques take years to master and a lifetime to perfect. Images are connsidered receptacles of the divine and treated with the utmost respect.

A Thangka is a painted or embroidered Tibetan banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and carried by lamas in ceremonial processions. In Tibetan the word 'than' means flat and the suffix 'ka' stands for painting. The Thangka is thus a kind of painting done on flat surface but which can be rolled up when not required for display, sometimes called a scroll-painting. The most common shape of a Thangka is the upright rectangular form.

Thangkas in the West have often been regarded as decorative wall hangings (although this has changed in recent years), but their history in the East is usually purely religious, and there is a long tradition of blessing thangkas by Lamas before they are hung.

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Devotional images	Cards	Books