The Kham region in southeastern Tibet gave rise to several artistic traditions, with two prominent ones being the New Gardri, or “New Encampment Style,” and Khamri, or “Kham Style.”
The Kham region in southeastern Tibet gave rise to several artistic traditions, with two prominent ones being the New Gardri, or “New Encampment Style,” and Khamri, or “Kham Style.”
In the eighteenth century, in the New Gardri Style, landscapes gained a greater sense of depth, the relative size of the figures to the landscape became smaller, and large areas of canvas were left unpainted. The Khamri Style is a hybrid of the Gardri and popular Menri styles. Its paintings are usually dominated by the heavily pigmented rich colors of the Menri with certain compositional and landscape elements borrowed from the Gardri Style.
The Amdo region in northeastern Tibet is a large, diverse area that has been home to many artist communities over the centuries. It had five local centers of art, each with its own distinctive traditions. In recent centuries, most of Amdo’s painting styles were derived from the Menri styles rooted in central Tibet. However, over time these styles became distinctively local with their own palette and aesthetic.
Select each work to learn more.
Situ Panchen
Kham Region, Eastern Tibet
18th century
Black Cloak Mahakala is the personal protector of the Karmapas and a special protector of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetans developed special genres of painting using solid ground colors in black, red, and gold (see for instance the nearby gold-ground painting of Hevajra). They tend to lack solid figural forms or the distinctive green and blue landscape palettes typical of later Tibetan painting. Instead these specialized genres primarily make use of outlines, with energetic lines that emphasize the artist’s brushwork mastery.
Each special format is associated with a specific function and type of deity. Black background paintings are traditionally reserved for wrathful deities and often kept in special chapels dedicated to protector deities. Sometimes black-ground paintings are described in texts as sized with cremation ash and inked with nose blood, but more typically this black effect was achieved with ink made from lamp soot. The gold used to outline the figures and the spare touches of red to create dramatic flames are typical of this genre.
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