Two thangkas of the same size and subject can differ in price by twenty times or more. The difference is in the painting itself: how fine the lines are, how much detail there is, how carefully the faces and hands are drawn, and how smoothly the colours are shaded. Simpler pieces take a painter days; the finest can take months. We grade every painting so you can see where it sits, and we price every piece by the same rule.
Our four grades
| Grade | What it means |
|---|---|
| Classic | Clean, traditional work at an accessible price. Simpler detail and flatter colour. A good first thangka, or for daily practice. |
| Fine | Careful, detailed work: finer lines, crisper gold-coloured line work, smoother shading. Most of our paintings are Fine. |
| Master | Exceptional work by highly skilled painters: very fine detail, precisely drawn faces and hands, subtle shading throughout. |
| Collector | The rarest pieces, with near-perfect marks on every point. Each one is confirmed individually. |
How we decide
We look closely. Every painting is examined closely, one by one, and scored on the same five points:
- Detail: how much fine work there is in robes, hair, flowers and clouds.
- The main figure: faces, eyes, hands and proportions. For mandalas, we judge the straightness of the lines, the symmetry and the evenness of the lettering instead.
- Gold-coloured line work: how thin, crisp and even the lines are. How much gold there is doesn't count.
- Shading and colour: smooth blending, and colours that work together.
- Drawing and composition: how well the whole painting is drawn and arranged. More figures don't mean a higher grade.
Then we check against the gallery's records. We compare each painting with what our gallery paid for it, allowing for its size, because skilled painters charge more for their time. When the two disagree, we look again before a grade is published.
Grades compare our own paintings with each other. A grade is our honest opinion of a painting's quality, to help you compare pieces. It isn't a valuation, and it isn't a certificate of value.
How we price
Every price comes from the same two things:
- What the painting cost us, delivered to you.
- What paintings of the same size and quality sell for at other Himalayan art sellers.
There are no fake "was" prices, countdown timers or "only today" offers. The price you see is the price. On the rare occasions we run an offer, it is a dated discount code: for example, around Black Friday, with its start and end dates stated.
Mandalas are usually priced below deity paintings of the same size, as they are across the market.
What we don't claim
- Materials: all our thangkas are painted on cotton canvas. A painting's page names its other materials, such as mineral pigments or 24K gold, only when our gallery has confirmed them for that painting. Until then we say "gold-coloured". We never say "organic".
- Age: our thangkas are contemporary paintings, and we say so on customs forms too.
- Artists: we name an artist only when the signature is legible or the gallery confirms it.
See it for yourself
Every painting has a full photo you can zoom into. Most also show the size in centimetres and inches (including the painted border), five close-ups (the four corners and the centre) and a true-to-scale view in a living room, so you can judge the size on a wall. We're adding these to the rest.
If you'd like another photo or a closer look at any part, email us. We reply within 24 hours.