The living Murals

Tibetan fresco originated from rock painting in ancient times. It consists mainly of the animal images of deer, ox, sheep, horses, and hunting scenes. Fresco was quite developed in ancient times, especially after Buddhism arrived, and religious painting was further developed. Buddhist art not only retains the best of traditional Tibetan art, but is also influenced by Indian, Nepali and Chinese art. It's quite unique and extraordinary splendid! Tibet Buddhism is very abstruse; the artists painted distinctive images of Buddha, and many pictures of him. The painting is mainly exhibited in sculpture, wall paintings, thankas, etc.

Wall paintings in Ta’er Lamasery contain rich content, involving religion, politics, history, economy, culture, Tibetan medicine, and social life. Any of the Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist messages, fairy tales, history stories, daily living scenes, mountains and rivers, birds and flowers, patterns and adornment can be adopted into a wall painting, which has a unique style. It uses cold and dark colors, such as black, dark blue, mauve, dark grey, brown and white; drawing with lines, especially plain lines; simple, rough and sparse outlines. It has the same style of art as the atmosphere of the monastery, and contains exaggerated and distorted art images.

The painters gave human life to the statue of Buddha through art, which make the statue look faithful, handsome, merciful, charming, fiery and forthright.

Portraits and biographies of DaLai, Bainqen and other famous monks in history

Such works exist as picture-story book in all the monasteries. Each of these images has distinct features that can be easily recognized by someone who knows a little bit of Tibetan culture.

Custom drawing or record of famous history events

For example, some wall paintings at The Potala Palace show the wedding of Songtsen Gambo and the Wenchen Princess, the passionate welcoming ceremony at Lhasa when Wenchen reached there. Wall paintings at the Samye Monastery beside the Yarlung Zanbo River contain many scenes of boxing, horse racing, KongFu, wrestling, and weight lifting. There are even pictures of a Qigong player using two swords to support his abdomen, with his arms and legs in the air that is a depiction of acrobatic skill.

Tibetan wall painting is actually pictures of Tibetan history. It describes visually social living, the development of religion, historical tales, local conditions and the customs of Tibet. It is a pearl of Chinese national art!

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