The Eighteen Arhats(18 Luohan)Woodblock Thangka Art

❤This thangka comes from the Derge Sutra Printing Temple (a famous cultural heritage).

It is made on traditional Tibetan hand-made drawing paper using ancient engraving and printing techniques. (Please see the introduction below) 

It still being made in the same way as they have been for almost three hundred years: handprinted from hand-carved wooden blocks.

You can see the exquisite plant lines on the drawing paper, because the paper is handmade from pure natural plant materials, such as Pennisetum. 

❤Details

Material: cloth, silk,canvas,Tibetan Paper

The front is covered with silk to protect Thangka With exquisite wooden painting shaft and lanyard

❤Size & Weight

Frame :70cm(top) *83 cm(bottom) * 120cm(Height)(about 28" * 33" * 47")

Core: 47.5cm(Width) *63 cm(Height) (about 18.7" * 24.8")

❤ABOUT DERGE SUTRA PRINTING TEMPLE

The Dêrgê Barkang (pronunciation "Dehr-gheh", alternative names Derge Parkhang, Dege Parkhang, Derge Sutra Printing Temple, Dege Yinjing Yuan, Derge Barkhang, Dege Barkhang, Barkhang, Parkhang, Bakong Scripture Printing Press and Monastery) is the barkang (printing house) associated to the Goinqên Monastery. It is one of the foremost cultural treasures of Tibet.

The Derge Parkhang is a living institution devoted to the printing and preservation of Tibetan literature, a printing temple that holds the greatest number of Tibetan woodblocks in the world.
The Derge Sutra Printing Temple (Parkhang in Tibetan) is one of the most important cultural, social, religious and historical institutions in Tibet. Founded in 1729 by Demba Tsering, the fortieth King of Derge (1678–1739) with the spiritual and literature assistance of the 8th Tai Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne, the Derge Parkhang is an active center for publication of Tibetan Buddhist sutra, commentaries, and thangka as well as works of history, technology, biography, medicine and literature.
Books are still being made in the same way as they have been for almost three hundred years: handprinted from hand-carved wooden blocks. Cinnabar is used to colour the text red,in which workers can print eight to fifteen pages manually a minute,2500 in a day,from wooden blocks that have already been engraved with text.Thirty printers are in working condition where printers work in pairs, one puts ink on wooden press, later cleaned in a trough, while the other rolls a piece of paper using a roller which is imprinted red with sayings of Buddha.

❤ABOUT The Eighteen Arhats
The Eighteen Arhats (or Luohan) (Chinese: 十八羅漢; pinyin: Shíbā Luóhàn; Wade–Giles: Shih-pa Lo-han) are depicted in Chinese Buddhism as the original followers of Gautama Buddha (arhat) who have followed the Noble Eightfold Path and attained the four stages of enlightenment.
They have reached the state of Nirvana and are free of worldly cravings. They are charged to protect the Buddhist faith and to wait on earth for the coming of Maitreya, an enlightened Buddha prophesied to arrive on earth many millennia after Gautama Buddha's death (parinirvana).