All the materials needed for Thangka's painting

Tangka's pigments are divided into nine categories.

Thangka painters divide all pigments needed for Thangka painting into nine categories: earth, stone, water, fire, wood, grass, flowers, bones and precious stones.

Pigments belonging to soil are: white clay, soda ash, diamond soil and red soil.

Stone pigments include: silver ore, chalcopyrite, mica, lapis lazuli, patina, cinnabar, tortoise shell, ochre and so on.

Waterborne pigments include: Huang Dan, Sangzhure, Indigo, Indigo, etc.

Pigments belonging to fire include ink, arsenolite and realgar.

Pigments belonging to wood are: mangrove, golden tree, birch, hardwood, purple stem and so on.

Pigments belonging to grasses are: Luxun grass, Coptis chinensis, Stellera chamaejasme, amaranth and so on.

Pigments belonging to flowers are: wild chrysanthemum, white birch, primrose and so on.

Pigments belonging to bones are: clam, conch, keel, etc.

Pigments belonging to gems are: gold, silver, dzi beads, coral, turquoise and so on.

These natural pigments can also be classified by hue:

White: clay, soda, diamond, conch, mica, etc.

Yellow category: arsenolite, realgar, lux grass, coptis root, Huang Jinshu, chrysanthemum indicum, birch bark, etc.

Red category: cinnabar, amaranth, red soil, etc.

Blue category: lapis lazuli, indigo, hardwood, etc.

Green category: patina, patina, malachite, etc.

Black category: boiler smoke, coal mine stone, etc.

Purple: mulberry fever, hawksbill stone, ochre, purple tree, etc.

All pigments are divided into mineral pigments and plant pigments according to their material properties.

Commonly used mineral pigments are: Renbu clay (white), cinnabar (red), celestite (azurite), malachite (turquoise), realgar/orpiment (yellow) and Huang Dan (orange).

Plant pigments are often used in cyan, rouge, etc. The production process of plant pigments is simpler than that of mineral pigments. First, flowers and trees or bark are collected, washed, soaked or boiled to get juice of different colors, and then evaporated to make colored pills.