Monday, July 11, 2005
Thangka shopping
I have always like Tibet Thangka painting, which are religous Tibetan paintings on cloth. What I have found here is that sometimes they come on skin. Yak skin, and even human skin. I saw a Thangka that was being sold for 100, 000 EUROS which is painted on the skin ( the back ) of a deceased, high level Lama. It was a bit much for me. I don't think I could buy one on human skin.. I"ll stick to cloth.
plus 100,000 EUROS is out of my price range.
Anyways, over 2.5 days I have spent hours upon hours with a friend searching every Thangka in Lhasa. The result, I bought one about 30-50 years old painted in the Guke style from Western Tibet. I bargained hard for it.
The prices for the Thangka vary greatly, and its insane.
Here's an example. I go into a store and ask about two thangkas. Thangka "A" is 12,000RMB ( $1700 CAD) and Thangka "B" is 9000RMB ( $1300 CAD)
The next day, I go back to the same store, to compare again the quality versus others that I have been looking at.
I meet a different sales person who tells me that Thangka "A" is 28,000 RMB, and that Thangka "B" is a "cheap" one, and only 1500 RMB. So one has more than doubled in price in 24 hours, and the other has dropped 80% in price....
buyer beware.
The one that I bought ( from a different shop) I paid 20% of the original quoted price.
plus 100,000 EUROS is out of my price range.
Anyways, over 2.5 days I have spent hours upon hours with a friend searching every Thangka in Lhasa. The result, I bought one about 30-50 years old painted in the Guke style from Western Tibet. I bargained hard for it.
The prices for the Thangka vary greatly, and its insane.
Here's an example. I go into a store and ask about two thangkas. Thangka "A" is 12,000RMB ( $1700 CAD) and Thangka "B" is 9000RMB ( $1300 CAD)
The next day, I go back to the same store, to compare again the quality versus others that I have been looking at.
I meet a different sales person who tells me that Thangka "A" is 28,000 RMB, and that Thangka "B" is a "cheap" one, and only 1500 RMB. So one has more than doubled in price in 24 hours, and the other has dropped 80% in price....
buyer beware.
The one that I bought ( from a different shop) I paid 20% of the original quoted price.
# posted by jason @ 12:42 AM 
