Biocultural profiles of Qinghai Regong Thangka

Abstract

The loss of biodiversity not only means the loss of genes, species and ecosystems, but also threatens the human cultural diversity. Thangka is known as the ‘encyclopaedia’ of traditional Tibetan culture, covering social, historical, cultural, religious and medicinal aspects. Qinghai Regong Thangka is one of the most important sects of Thangka, and has vivid and delicate depiction of images, and the numerous depictions of natural landscapes. By combining the methods of literature analysis, work analysis and ethnobiological fieldwork, the biocultural aspects of Regong Thangka are studied in terms of the traditional knowledge related to biodiversity in the painting techniques of Regong Thangka and the analysis of the connotation of biological images. The study revealed the biological origins and production processes of the traditional painting tools and 12 natural plant-derived pigments for Regong Thangka; explored the origins and functions of the biological images often found in the Thangka works; explained the ecological concepts conveyed from Regong Thangka. In general, Regong Thangkas are not only resulted from nature, but also provide feedbacks to nature in their content. In the future, we should pay attention to the protection and inheritance of the traditional skills and biodiversity related traditional knowledge of Regong Thangka, and further explore its functions of traditional knowledge dissemination and nature education.

Keywords

• regong thangka
• economic plants
• biological culture
• traditional knowledge
• eco-cultural protection area