How to Roll Up a Thangka for Transport or Storage

Thangka Rolled Up in the Traditional Way

Today’s post comes in response to a reader. (Thanks for the push! It was time to get writing again.)

So you bought a thangka or had one commissioned while you were on pilgrimage in India, trekking in Nepal, or otherwise traveling the world.

Maybe you’ve commissioned a thangka from me or from a Tibetan or western thangka painter in your own town.

It’s been hanging on your wall, above your altar, in your living room, blessing and inspiring you for a while now. Then one day the moment arrives —

• it’s moving day or
• you’ve agreed to lend the thangka to a dharma center for a teaching event or
• you have to store it while your house is being painted…

How do you roll up the thangka to move or store it?

Well, do you want the traditional answer or the conservator’s advice?

I’ll give you both. 😉

Ann Shaftel, art conservator specialized in thangka conservation has been working with Tibetan and Bhutanese communities to improve their conservation practices. Just so you know — traditional is not always best.

Improper handling also causes great damage to these objects. The thangka form was devised to facilitate easy transportation; nevertheless, rolling and unrolling a painting over the centuries causes damage to the support, ground and paint layers.

Ann Shaftel, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation

Still, thangkas are made for rolling up. Some even say that the word thangka, in Tibetan, means “something that rolls up.” (It’s also said to refer to a flat surface, like a field… or a canvas.)

Whatever the origin, a thangka, today, is a sacred figurative scroll, sometimes painted on canvas, other times stitched in silk. However it’s made, it’s usually framed in a flexible brocade border and can roll up. (For the alternative methods of framing your painted thangka, see my previous post, Who Can Frame my Thangka in Brocade?)

In Tibet, thangkas were carried from place to place and brought in and out of storage frequently. The entire composite object was designed with all phases of a thangka’s life — display, storage, transport — in mind. It was a very practical system… but it was not designed by art conservators and may not be the very best way to protect your treasured art.

In my post, How to Hang a Thangka , I describe the parts of a thangka, including the image, brocade borders, upper and lower wooden supports, silk drape, and straps for hanging and tying. Ann Shaftel generously provides the illustration below.

If your thangka is assembled in this traditional way (and you don’t have a flat storage option available), you will probably want to follow the traditional method of rolling it. After all, it’s elegantly designed just for that.

In this case, you will roll the thangka with the image on the inside, covered by the silk drape. The process requires two people. I demonstrate the process at the end of this eight-minute video (How to Hang a Thangka on my video page), starting at 4:58.

And here are the instructions:

1. Release the silk drape from its gather at the top of the thangka. Let it fall down over the image.
2. Take the thangka down from the wall without bunching or crunching it.
3. One person holds the upper wooden bar at waist height.
4. The second person, the roller, takes the lower wooden dowel at a similar height and stands at a distance so that the thangka is pulled taut and horizontal, with the image facing upward covered by the silk drape.
5. The person holding the top bar stands firm, providing an anchor to keep the thangka consistently taut while the second person rolls it up.
6. The person at the lower end of the thangka smooths the silk drape over the thangka, making it as unwrinkled as possible and gathering it inward so that it covers the entire thangka but does not protrude at the sides.
7. Pulling taut, start to roll the thangka up from the bottom, around the dowel. The silk drape will protect the surface of the painting inside, and the cotton backing will show on the outside of the roll.
8. As you roll keep your hands to the edges so that any pressure you apply is on the brocade border and not on the image itself. This is especially important for painted thangkas, as the canvas can easily crease and the paint crack if pressure is applied to it.
9. When the thangka is completely rolled up — the roller had reached the person holding the upper bar — each person takes one end of the rolled thangka and ties the straps around it, to secure the roll. Again, it’s very important that the straps be tied around the brocade borders and NOT around the painting itself. The straps are normally attached to the upper wooden bar at a point where they would crunch the painting if wrapped straight around. Therefore, it is necessary to draw them toward the ends of the roll first, looping them over your thumb and then wrap them around the roll so that they bind it near the ends, pressing on the brocade rather than the painting.
10. If you will be carrying the rolled-up thangka yourself or keeping it in a safe, undisturbed place, you can keep it like this. If you think it may get bumped or disturbed, you may want to place the roll  in a drawing tube for protection. Telescoping plastic drawing tubes with carrying straps can be purchased at any art supply store, or you can use a cardboard mailing tube if you find one wide enough to hold your thangka.

From a conservator’s point of view, it’s best to store any artwork flat if you have the space.

Protected flat storage carries the least risk of damage. But most of us (and even many museums) don’t have adequate flat storage space to keep or move our thangkas that way.

The second best way of storing or transporting textiles and paintings is to roll them facing outward (the opposite of the way the traditional thangka system is designed) around a wide tube.

Rolling outward allows the surface to remain flatter rather than collapsing in on itself. If your thangka is unframed, you can roll it around the widest packing tube you can find. Make sure the tube is as long or longer than the width of your thangka, so that the edges of the thangka do not extend beyond the edges of the tube. Place a muslin cloth or acid-free paper between the thangka and the tube and roll facing out. Make sure your muslin or paper is long enough to cover the outside of the thangka when rolling is complete.

So, as is often the case, we’re presented with a traditional method and some contemporary learning.

What do I do with my own thangkas?

When they’re framed in the traditional way (and when people commission me to create traditional thangkas), I roll them in the traditional way, facing inward. The composite object of the thangka is an elegant system that I respect and comply with.

On the other hand, when I make my contemporary thangkas, I do not use the traditional brocade border and mounting system. I design them more like art quilts (with a fabric tunnel at the back for inserting a bar but with no rigid bars integrated into the piece) and roll them outward around a wide tube for transport and storage.

Best of both worlds, and adapting to circumstances. It’s the best we can do!

In general, of course, I keep my thangkas hanging on the wall as much as possible, where they can bless and inspire me and whoever passes by. Thanks for passing by!