The pictorial art is another major Tibetan art form. It is most popular among all art forms of Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore it is reputed as the ??King of the Arts??. As those in Christine and other religions, the pictorial art of the Tibetan Buddhism has reflected the role of religious veneration and mobilization of religious emotion of the believers. After successfully trying to press the ??incomparable Buddhist power?? with the symbolist method, Buddhist leaders has realized the educational and aesthetic functions of the pictorial art and hence incorporated the art into their veneration system. According to the religious doctrines, they formalized a series of standard for size proportion, body gesture, hand gesture and subjects. The book enliled Principle on Metrics of Painting intended, by means of the pictorial art, to trigger and enhance unshrinking passion of the believers and to disseminate the essences of Buddhism. The Buddhist pictorial art was introduced to Tibet along with the Buddhist doctrines and combined with the traditional Tibetan art, thus forming the pictorial art of Tibetan Buddhism, which can be further divided into four major art forms: rock drawings, fresco, Thangka and woodcut.

Major Categories of the Paintings
Rock drawing is the oldest category in Tibet prevalent since prehistoric times and Tubo period. In recent years with the Tibetan archeology work enhancing, a large number of rock drawings have been discovered in almost all parts of Tibet continuously, especially in Western Tibet (mainly in Nagri) and Northern Tibet.

According to the painting methods and subjects, the archeologists divide the time of the artistic creation into three periods. The first period was between 2000 B.C. and the first century A.D., when Tibet was in early bronze age, the second period was between the first to sixth century A.D., the last period was in the seventh century A.D., when Buddhism had been introduced to the Tubo Kingdom. The subjects mainly dealt with animals, natural veneration, grazing, hunting, religious signs, religious subjects, tourney, war, moving of tribes, figures and so on, in all aspects of production activities, life and religious events of the plateau inhabitants. Among the all, those in connected with animals, hunting as well as religious events were most prominent. The animals such as sheep, yak, deer, hawk, bird, dog, horse, leopard, donkey, camel and so on, often occur in the paintings. Except for the two humped camel, all the animals had close relationship with the life of the plateau inhabitants. The grazing subjects concerned with such specific activities as leading, moving or driving of herds, etc., which were truly reflected the nomadic life of the early plateau inhabitants who always wandered for the new places where water and grass were abundant. Hunting was another main activity of the nomadic herders. The rock drawings depicted hunters, hunting tools and games. The hawks and dogs had become important companions of the hunters. From the hunting tools like the bows and arrows as well as the metal pikes and knifes, we are conscious of the establishment of the hunting. The main games were large size mammals, such as wild yaks, antelopes, rock goats, ibexes, wild asses and deer, etc, which were identical to those wildlife existing today in the desert regions of the northwest part of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The subjects about the religious activities included religious signs, natural veneration, wizards and consecration rituals, etc. According to historic documents, these were closely linked to the aboriginal Bon Religion and the later introduced Buddhism. The ??Yung-drung?? lucky sign, the symbol of Bon, as well as the Sun and Moon subjects occurred in many rock drawings.

The existing Tibetan rock drawings include pictographs (painted and chalked pictures) and petroglyphs (pecked, scratched and engraved pictures), which were depicted either on rock surface or on huge stone surface. The early rock drawings lacked consistency in composition. The frames were in disorder and disperse. Most of them were in form of petroglyphs. The entire descriptive object had a silhouette effect. The shaping of both animals and people had a realistic tendency, with a simple but vivid outline. People mostly were outlined in geometric form, while their limbs were represented with single lines, no any facial and body details. For animals, there was no connection either between two horns and heads, or between the upper and lower jaws, there were no partial description for eyes, knuckles and so on; there even was no any bending for joints. In the second period, the shaping of the people kept the realistic tendency; the limbs were delineated in double lines with stronger sense of movement. The joints of animals were represented; on the bodies of cattle, sheep or deer, there were horizontal 'S' patterns; the vertical line patterns on the bodies of tiger, leopard and wolf tended to be in order and coordination. While the petroglyphs kept as principal form, the pictographs also emerged. The composition began to be attended in a frame. The subject of the larger scene also appeared. In the late period, both petroglyphs and pictographs frequently occurred and the latter became the dominant form. The facial features of both people and animals were depicted in details, the knuckles were also specifically depicted and the sense of movement is more emphasized. Chasing the games and other hunting scenes were shaped concisely and precisely and the sense of the instant movement were reflected. The figures were vivid both in letter and in spirit, giving an artistic appeal. The decorative patterns on the bodies of animals were outlined in double lines but tended to be over detailed and conventionalized.

The representation of the swirl pattern on the deer body as well as the antlers of the deer was most characteristic f the shaping was exaggeratedly distorted, giving a sense of liberal style as well as ornament. Through a comparison of techniques, subjects and styles, we can find that the Tibetan rock drawings has a very close relation with the northern rock drawings in Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia as well as the rock drawings in Central Asia.

The fresco art is also the main pictorial aft in Tibet. Frescos were painted on the walls of all major monasteries and palaces. The fresco art of Tibetan Buddhism gradually developed by basing itself on the traditional rock drawings, and assimilating the nutrition of Buddhist pictorial art from India, Chinese Hinterland and Nepal, etc.. Just as the Tibetan sculpture wt, the development of the Tibetan fresco art also underwent four historic stages f imitating, absorbing, forming and developing. During the Tubo period, frescos of exotic styles were introduced into Tibet. In this stage, different schools or aft from India, Nepal, Chinese Hinterland, Yutian (today's Xinjiang), and etc all were active in Tibet. Therefore frescos in this stage had a strong exotic appearance. The frescos in Jokhang Monastery are typical representatives of this stage. According to the documents, though there were some frescos reflected the traditional Tibetan Subject matters, such as the stories of 'Dzong', 'Dema' and 'Bon be1ievers riding deer in the sky', they were over shadowed by the exotic and predominant Buddhist subject matters. There are few frescos in this stage remain till today Only the 'Vajra Dagger' fresco in the second floor of Jokhang Monastery still exists till today, which has the typical artistic features of India, either in subject matters, composition and styles.

At the end of the l9th century, Buddhism resurrected in Nagri region of Tibet and Amdo region of Qinghai. The restoring of Buddhism in Tibet brought in also the prosperous situation of the fresco art. The earlier part of frescos in Toding Monastery and Donggar Cave in Nagri region and Xalhu Monastery and North Sakya Monastery in Tsang region, as well as the frescos in Nesa Monastery and Ngaiwon Monastery in Gyantse and Chatang Monastery in Shannan, are the exemplary works in this stage. Further assimilating the exotic styles on the basis of the traditional arts is the main feature in this stage. What is different from the earlier stage is that now the artists tend to screen and delicately incorporate various kinds of exotic arts and began to shape their own features. The frescos existing in Xalhu Monastery and Chatang Monastery can represent this tendency in this period. The subject matters and styles of the frescos in the two monasteries are generally the same. The subject is about Sakyamuni expounding the Dharma. Sakyamuni is arranged in the center of the frame, and in two half circle respectively on the two sides are f the accompanying bodhisattvas, disciples, monks and attending bodhisattvas. From the composition and the costumes of the accompanying bodhisattvas and attending bodhisattvas, we can see the artistic style of Pala Dynasty in India. But from the face shaping and depiction of the facial features as well as other partial rendering, we can see clear-cut Chinese Han artistic features of Dunhuang fresco art. The artists perfectly incorporated the two styles: the 1ndian Pa1a and Chinese Dunhuang ones, to a brand new style.

The period between the l3th and l5th century was an important times for Tibetan fresco art to shape its unique features on the basis of absorbing and assimilating the exotic artistic styles. The frescos in South Sakya Monastery, XaIhu Monastery, Qamdo Monastery, Jorlung Monastery, Natang Monastery, Riwoqi Monastery, Gandain Monastery, Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery and Gyangze Monastery Palkor Monastery and Tashilhungpo Monastery are important works in this stage. Among the all, those in Xalhu Monastery and Palkor Monastery are the epoch-making representatives. From the Yuan Dynasty a kind of two-way artistic exchange between Tibet and the Yuan Court not only resulted in a brand new artistic school of Royal-Tibetan Buddhism, bit also provided a rich nutrition to the development of Tibet's local artistic creation. The frescos in Xahlu Monastery created after its expansion are the excellent fruits of this exchange, which by assimilating the artistic styles of Chinese hinterland and Nepal developed a unique style, while those in Palkor Monastery are the truly master pieces of perfect incorporation of Tibetan loca1 and exotic styles. All the frescos were made by Tibetan artists who came from the northern, southern and middle areas of Tsang region and Lhasa region. By incorporating the different exotic styles with the local one, they created the famous 'Gyantse Style', the forming of which marked the Tibetan frescos going into its prime times.

After the l6th century, the fresco wt flourished and different styles continue to occur massively. Their competition and coordination brought about an overall prospect of the fresco creation. In this stage, the Tibetan Buddhist arts including the fresco art were not only fully distributed on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, but also rose substantially in Mongolia, Northeastern China, Beijing and Hebei and so on.

Thangka art is a very popular and unique kind of Tibetan pictorial arts. It looks like the painted scroll prevalent in Chinese hinterland, therefore it is also called 'painted scroll'. Some people hold that its origination had something to do with the traditional Chinese painted scroll, while some people believe that it was brought in by the earlier pilgrims from India and Nepal. The sizes of Thangka are varied ranging from several dozen square meters (like the kind exhibited during the Shoton Festival in Drepung Monastery) and several dozen square centimeters. However the size of the ordinary one is about one or two square meters. The categories of Thangka are also numerous. In accordance with the materials and processes it can be divided into three categories f Embroidered Thangka, painted Thangka and printed Thangka.

The embroidered Thangka can be further divided into three Subcategories: partial silk weft woven Thangka, silk woven Thangka and pasted embroider Thangka and in particular the first two are most famous. These two kinds started in fashion in the Yuan Dynasty, which were made based on colored drawings on papers. Since there were neither silk produce nor silk woven processing in Tibet, the Thangkas usually were processed in the silk production centers in Chinese hinterland like Suzhou, Hangzhou and etc according to the colored drawings. The earliest partial weft woven thangkas among the hitherto existing ones are the 'Acalanaatha' and the 'Image of Gongtang Lama' in Potala Palace, the 'Green Tara' in Hermitage Museum in Russia in and the 'Yamankaka' in Metropolitan Museum of Art in the U.S.A. On the Thangka 'Acalanaatha', there is a remark written in Tibetan script and it was presented by a disciple of Dragpa Gyaltsen, one of the five forefathers of the Sakya Sect. The Thangka 'Green Tara' was discovered in Heishui Town, a historic town of Xixia Kingdom. On the Thangka 'Yamankaka', there is also a remark written in Tibetan script and images of two successive emperors of Yuan Dynasty, Yuan Wenzhong and Yuan Ningzhong and their wives, as patrons. With the typical style of frescos and thangkas in this period, they were delicately and perfectly processed.

The painted Thangka is the most prevalent and common category of the Thangka arts. According to the background colors, it can be further divided into several subcategories such as colored Thangka, golden Thangka, red Thangka and black Thangka, and so on. The westerners call all of them as the water-color painting on glued cloth. The process of Thangka making is as follows f prepare a piece of cotton cloth and stretch it onto a wooden frame, sketch with the graphite and outline with the black brush, apply pigments on the sketch. and then dilute the colors, outline, dilute, apply the golden pigment again; at last outline the eyes of the characters. The perfect combinations of lines and colors and their fantastic variations are the principal techniques of the Thangka painting. The golden Thangka and black Thangka are very impressive and are mainly represented by application of lines, similar to the ink line drawing in traditional Chinese painting techniques. On the single background color, golden or black, all shapes and patterns are drawn with white lines, which contrast strikingly with the background color and present an effect of three-dimensional space. The lines are as soft and natural as the flowing water and cloud. The superb technique is really amazing.

The woodcut art occurred later than the fresco and Thangka alls. In the early Yuan Dynasty (the early l3th century), the introduction and extensive application of the wood b1ock printing technique in Tibet resulted in the birth of the woodcut art. The processes of woodcut include drawing, plate making, plate cutting and printing. The major works are illustrations of the Tripitaka and those in the Collective Album of the Portraits of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The earliest woodcuts concerning the subject matters of Tibetan Buddhism among the hitherto existing ones are the illustrations of the Tripitaka, Jishacang Version, in Xixia script and in Chinese, Which were made by Guan Zhuba, a famous monk, in Eastern China between l302 and l320. The woodcut illustrations of the Tripitaka in several versions such as the Yongle Version, Natang Version, Dege Version, Beijing Version and Lhasa Version were the important works made since the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Images, Names and Mantras of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and the Portraits Album of three Hundred Buddhas edited by Living Buddha Changgya (both were printed in l43l A.D. in Beijing), and the Portraits of Five Hundred Buddhas, (Natang Edition, printed in Tibet) are the important works of the portrait albums.