Sacred Strokes

Himalayan Buddhist regions such as Sikkim preserve vibrant traditions of thangka painting, where sacred imagery, ritual practice, and precise iconometric systems converge. Yet, compared to other Himalayan artistic centers, Sikkim’s thangka traditions have received limited scholarly attention. Drawing on 2024 ethnographic fieldwork and guided by theoretical approaches from Gell’s notion of art as agency, Malinowski’s emphasis on embodied practice, and Sharf’s view of Buddhist images as enlivened through consecration, this paper analyses how iconometry (thig tshad), ritual discipline, and lineage-based apprenticeships structure artistic creation. It also shows how these sacred arts persist even as tourism and new markets influence how they are made. In the end, the study highlights thangka painting in Sikkim as a vibrant living tradition, where skill, devotion, and ritual vitality remain central.