Tibetan Cliff Painting

Brief Introduction of Tibetan Cliff Painting

Tibetan Cliff Painting was discovered in the 1980s and 1990s. According to the rough statistics, there are more than 60 sites and 50000 cliff paintings, distributing in 14 counties of Tibet Autonomous Region. Most of the cliff paintings centralize at the western and northern part of Tibet as well as the plateau section of the upper and middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River, which is also well known as the chang tang, meaning the northern grassland in Tibet language. In this area, the cliff paintings of the western Ali and the northern Naqu are focus and of distinguishing features.

The West Cliff Painting

Most of The west cliff paintings are carved and with small amount of reddish brown paint. The theme and artistic style of these paintings are close to the tradition of the northern part of our country. At the west, the paintings of Rutog County are concentrated and most of them are distributed near the Tibet-Xinjiang highway. The pluralism of the contents and styles of the paintings of Rutog County suggest that there used to be different tribes living. At the Renmudong of Rutog County, there is a pair of cliff painting, Leopard Runs after the Deer, of rare magnificent style. The beautiful antler is disclosing a feeling a decoration, the inverted S lines and vortex lines, the tall and straight posture as well as the smooth figure show the similarities with the ethnic arts of the northern steppe. Of course, most of the cliff paintings there are of local features, you may see the large-scale blood sacrifice of Ben Religion, the troops busy with transportation of trade, the wizard with fur or feather, the organized hunting and herd activity as well as the sacrifice ceremony with serious procedure, all of which suggest that it used to be prosperous in the west.

The North Cliff Painting

Different from the western centralized cliff paintings, the North Cliff Paintings are of the early stage and late stage two categories, with the representative work of Jialinshan cliff painting and cave cliff paintings near the Namtso Lake. People speak highly of the Jialinshan site as magical painting, which is carved on a big stone surface with more than 50 stones, with the images of animals, people, forests and signs. All the paintings display the life of hunting, taming wild animals, herding and fighting. The images are with innervation, but simple in style. The paintings of Namtso Lake area, suggest the content of Buddhism Culture, thus the making age of them is much later than the others. What's more, the paintings there are of the paint group, which is rare among the Tibetan Cliff Paintings. Maybe that's because the paint technique is more convenient. Despite the difference in creating year, all the cliff paintings are rich and colorful in content. You may see many interesting characters and plots in the cliff painting, with pronounced flavour of life.