How much does a Thangka cost?

The usual size of a thangka is around 45CM×65CM. The price of a thangka is determined by the painter, content, size, raw materials and other factors of the thangka, and generally ranges from a few thousand to tens of thousands.

1. Painter.

Thangkas with meticulous painting skills (measurements, line frames, colors, etc.) usually cost more than 10,000 yuan, and some even cost tens of thousands of yuan. Even those with average painting skills cost around 1,000 yuan.

2. Content.

Things with complex content (many characters, adamantine guardians, etc.) are much more expensive than those with simple and simplistic content.

3. Size.

Out of the usual size (such as the size of a palm or about one square meter), the price has also increased due to the increase in the difficulty of art painting.

4. Raw materials

Usually, the commonly used color pastes for Thangka are advertising powder or Chinese painting pigments, etc., while mineral color pastes (Tibet pure natural iron ore plus ox bile) are used. The cost of thangka paste for painting (machine grinding or other) is expensive and the price is higher than that of ordinary pigment painting.

Extended information:

The price of a thangka is mainly determined by the painter (painting technique). As a rule, each thangka is the artist’s best effort. Only a small number of people are diligent in painting very delicately, and only a small number of people are perfunctory. Usually, a Thangka painting takes about 3 to 6 months, and the complicated time is even longer.

The painter maintains at least one posture for painting for 7 or 8 hours every day. Many times he only paints a flower or a cloud every day, so painting thangka is a physically demanding job. This is a very eye-catching job, so people's painters are usually monks such as lamas.

There is also the color paste, that is, the cost. Only for a typical thangka, the cost accounts for about 20% of the total price of the thangka, and a little more for the ordinary thangka. The next factor that determines the price of a thangka is its mounting. We all know that the mounting of a thangka is made of silk, so the mounting price of a medium-sized thangka is around 350.