Thangkas are Tibetan paintings which can be explained in many different points of view. Their meaning is different for Buddhist practitioners, painters, collecters, arts historians or researchers. This thesis should introduce the variaty of perspectives. The composition of the painting is given by the patron, artist or follows the Buddhist sacred scripts. Preparing the base, drawing, using colour pigments, outlining and doing final details belong to the process done by the master himself or partially by his students or monk or layman helpers. For impowering the thangka for the Buddhist praxis is necessary to do a sacrification ceremony by an educated monk. It is a religious and also social event connected with the painting. Thangkas are then used for the visualisation of figures of the Tibetan pantheon, mostly peaceful and wrathful deities. They are used in the monasteries, temples, home shrines or altars, are part of Buddhist ceremonies and festivals shown to the audience hung on the terraces or carried by the monks. Their vivid topics and colours encharme not only monks and lamas but also laymen. The expression differs according to local schools influenced by artists of Kashimiri, Bengali, Nepalese or Chinese origin. Tibetan painting style was probably created in the second half of 15th century...

This thesis presents a close iconographic and contextual study of a set of seven Tibetan thangka paintings depicting portraits of the First through the Ninth Dalai Lamas, currently in a private collection and dated to the nineteenth-century. Through this case study, I propose to situate the genre of Dalai Lama portraits within the larger context of Tibetan Buddhist practice by considering their role and function in merit-making activities. I propose that as visual reminders of the Dalai Lamas, these portraits can be considered a type of “relic” that is foundational to devotional practices in Buddhism. Specifically, this thesis will investigate portraits of Dalai Lamas within the framework of Buddhist relic traditions. As a secondary focus, the thesis will examine the artistic conventions through which the figures are rendered present, problematizing the notion of “portrait-likeness.”