Thangka paintings mainly depict deities of which religion?

Thangka (also spelt Tangka or Thanka) is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton or silk cloth. Thangkas usually show Buddhist deities, the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, great teachers (lamas), and religious diagrams such as mandalas and the "Wheel of Life" (Bhavachakra).

Features of thangka painting:

They are painted on a cotton or silk canvas, then mounted on a silk brocade frame, so they can be rolled up like a scroll. This made them easy for monks to carry from monastery to monastery.

They follow strict rules of proportion, colour and symbolism laid down in Buddhist texts, so the artist has little personal freedom.

Natural mineral and plant colours are used, often with gold.

They are used as aids for meditation and teaching, and are hung in monasteries, homes and during festivals. Some huge thangkas are displayed on hillsides during festivals.

Thangka painting began in Tibet and Nepal around the 7th-8th century and was influenced by the Pala art of eastern India and by Nepali (Newar) and Chinese art.

In India, thangka painting is practised in the Himalayan Buddhist regions, especially:

• Sikkim.
• Ladakh.
• Himachal Pradesh (Dharamshala, Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur).
• Arunachal Pradesh (Tawang).
• Darjeeling (West Bengal).

Monasteries such as Hemis (Ladakh), Rumtek (Sikkim) and Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) have important collections. At the Hemis festival, a giant thangka of Guru Padmasambhava is displayed once every 12 years.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Jainism has its own paintings, such as Kalpasutra manuscripts and "Pattas".
• ✗Sikhism uses religious art showing the Gurus.
• ✗Zoroastrianism does not have a thangka tradition.