Three Generations of Painters

Dainba Raodain, whose father was Zongdog Galsang Norbu, was born in 1941. He used to be an elementary school teacher, while also carrying out research on the Tibetan epic King Gesar and he served as a fine art editor for a publishing house.

In 1980, Dainba Raodain was transferred to Tibet University to teach art. He won the Excellence in Teaching Achievement Prize from the State Education Commission in 1990, and the Prize of the Wu Zuoren International Fine Arts Education Fund in 1991. He has published three individual monographs.

He is the only fine arts professor of university to be born in a family of a tangka artist.

Dainba Raodain's grandfather engaged in drawing tangka painted scrolls and murals all his life, and was a typical traditional Tibetan painter, while his father basically engaged in the research and practice of ornamental painting throughout his life, and contributed much to the development of Tibetan industrial arts.

Dainba Raodain said: "These days, the arts works designed by my father are hard to find outside collections. I think they are indeed worth their price whether from the point of view of rarity or from the exquisite, beautiful technique of painting and design.

Tibetan currency formerly appeared in 1913 in its capacity as regional circulating money.

In 1937, Regent Living Buddha Razheng, with the local government of Tibet, approved Tibetan paper currency in the denomination of 100 taels of silver should be printed by a swage engraving edition machine. In 1949, paper currency of 25 taels of silver started being printed after approval by Regent Dagzha.

Through textual research and criticism, Zongdog Galsang Norbu, who was the famous industrial arts master at that time, was the designer of this paper currency.

Marvelous Painter Family

Galsang Norbu's hometown was in Qusum County. His father, Woqen Cering Qugwo (1872-1935), was born into a painting family in the Ai area of Shannan, and began painting tangka scrolls at the age of 13. When he grew up, he entered the Painters' Guild called "Suichong" in Tibetan, and mainly took on the task of drawing murals and tangka paintings assigned by the local government; he won the professional title of Woqoin and Woqen in succession. In 1904, when he went to Beijing via Mongolia following the 13th Dalai Lama, he was in charge of drawing the picture of memorabilia along the way, as well as studying and researching the fine arts of the Han ethnic group and other ethnic groups.

After returning to Tibet, the Dalai Lama ordered him to draw some important murals in the Norbu Lingka and the Potala Palace (including those in the Norbu Lingka Gyangze Phodrang Palace, the mural titled Ruyi Canes in the Jokhang Monastery, the murals on the Four Devil Kings and Tibetan King Songtsan Gambo in the Potala Palace). Legend has it that when he returned to Tibet from Beijing, he wore Mongolian costume from head to foot and took scripts of wash painting, brush pens and boulder palettes in an attempt to change the traditional Tibetan painting style.

Several years later, his son, Galsang Norbu, was born. Under his strict discipline, his son joined the painters' organization at the age of 20, and won the professional title of Woqoin at the age of 23.

During the period of Regent Razheng, when the construction of the holy stupa for the 13th Dalai Lama had just begun, Lecang Qenrao happened to die. So the overall design of the holy stupa and the layout of all the decorative patterns were done only by Galsang and two other Woqen.

Through nearly three years of hard work, the holy stupa was built. The flower patterns on the surface of stupa were exquisite and rich, their spacing and style superb, and it became one of the representative works in decorative art.

From then on, Galsang Norbu specially engaged in the design of all sorts of public or personal craftwork patterns, including the design of all the figures of Buddha, the design of articles for everyday use and the design of furniture.

As an industrial arts master, he personally designed the patterns of the Tibetan 100 and 25-tael currency issued by the local government of Tibet, gaining great fame in the fine arts community.

He also participated in drawing many murals and tangka scrolls. The Image of the White Umbrella Goddess and Image of Buddhist Warrior Cangba, and so on, published in the book of Tibet Tangka Painting Scrolls, were all his works. He still fostered many excellent painters such as Chilei Toinzhub, Zhalha Dainzin and Dainba Raodain.

Background of Tibetan Currency

In history, the Tibetan race used shell, salt, ghee, hada scarves and walnuts as "currency". Even after metal currency appeared, the aforementioned forms of exchange remained in vogue in some regions of Tibet where transportation was inconvenient and the area was wide, but sparsely populated.

Since the Tubo Kingdom, Tibetan metal currency was always in the form of silver and gold ingots. The courts of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties gave Tibet great aid financially that was mostly gold and sycee (fine silver in stamped ingots). Meanwhile the sycee Tibet exchanged with the hinterland in the large amount of trade that had developed was not easy to carry, so it could meet ordinary needs of the monetary circulation. In the mid-16th century, Tibet formally began using modern metal currency called Zhamgar in Tibetan.

At that time, Tibet did not possess minting technology, so the silver coins minted by the Fifth King of Kathmandu widely used in Nepal began to be used in border trade and Tibetans began to feel that this was a very convenient means of settling their bills, so the local government of Tibet determined to formally import the silver coins for circulation throughout Tibet. It signed a treaty with Nepal that the equivalent weight of silver was exchanged for silver coins. But the treaty did not stipulate how the minting costs were to be met.

As a countermeasure, the Nepalese businessman in charge of minting began to produce coins that had some copper mixed with the silver. To everyone's surprise, the rate of copper exceeded 50 percent, and the color of the silver coins changed from silvery white to dark cyan. Silver coins became alloy coins. This brought a very great loss to be Tibetan economy and gave rise to dissatisfaction that eventually became one of the causes of two wars between Tibet and Nepal.

When Tibet won during the second war, the Qing court wanted to resolve the problem of minting in Tibet. Since the 58th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1793), coins, bearing words reading Qianlong Baozang, began to be minted in Tibet.

In 1912, a bank was set up in some region of Tibet. In order to reduce costs, the Tibet government decided that paper currency of different denominations should be printed by woodcut moulage (mold) from 1913.

However, Tibetan currency printed originally had only one color, either blue, red or khaki. And because it is a monochromatic paper currency, it was very easy to fake. Forged notes, printed in India and Nepal, appeared many times. Then an organization called Aiba Yundain was established in charge of distinguishing the forged noted. A bank-note number was manually filled in by a full time Gongchen Banjor, and a rectangular black seal of the mint was stamped on the right side of bank-note facade. The method of filling in the currency number by hand became an important feature of Tibetan currency.

A few years later, the local government of Tibet sent Tubdain Gungpei and Dorde to India to study printing. In 1926, it began using a water-driven machine to print 50-tael colored Zhamgar paper currency. This paper currency frame, 160mm long and 100mm wide respectively, was longer than the original monochromatic Zhamgar of the same value. An eight-square red seal of the Dalai and black seal of bank were stamped on the surface. The drawings and words were in four colors-yellow, black, red and blue.

In order to improve the quality of the currency and make them more forgery-proof, the local government assigned famous industrial arts masters, like Zongdog Galsang Norbu, to participate in the designing and drawing, so that the whole appearance of Tibetan currency was changed.

Design Style of 100-Tael-Silver-Denominated Tibetan Currency

Tibetan currency valued at 100 and 25 taels of silver, designed and drawn by Galsang Norbu, was printed and issued respectively in 1937 and 1949.

Looking at the 100-tael note carefully, the patterns at the back are more complex and exquisite. In the center of the picture, there is a blue-laced rectangular frame, 139mm long and 80.5mm wide, in which there is a horizontal, exquisite block print. An old and a young saint are depicted. The old saint holds a treasure kettle in his right hand to moisten the earth, and combs his beard with his left hand; the young saint holds one treasure bowl in each hand, the right hand as high as the brow, and the left hand level with the chest. There is a deer lying in front of the old saint, a large plate filled with food in the right front, a treasure tripod in the left rear, a pair of white cranes on the left and an island in the sea on the right. There are two bats flying in opposite directions on the left and right at the top. All these images depict longevity, peace, happiness and perfect satisfaction.


There are three tiers of frames outside the block print. The inner frame consists of white-bottomed, red diamond grids containing crossed patterns. In the four corners there is respectively a blue dragon whose head faces towards the center. There are some white-bottomed blue words, reading "The local government of Tibet invincible" in the middle frame. In its four corners and the top and bottom rims there are white-bottomed green peonies symbolizing invaluableness and green diamond grids in which "Four happines" is written. The outside frame is the same as the facade.

Forgery-proof measures were taken on the Tibetan currency of 100 taels of silver. When looking at the paper against the light, one can see two rows of horizontal hidden words in the central section. It was said that they were made by the method of changing the concentration of the pulp fiber when the paper was processed.

According to Dainba Raodain, Zongdog Galsang Norbu's son, many paper currencies were designed by painters in the world. China is no exception. The color script designs of the second, third and fourth set of RMB were accomplished by experts such as Luo Gongliu, Hou Yimin and Zhou Lingzhao, who were engaged from the Central Institute of Fine Arts and the Central Institute of Industrial Arts.

Liu Wenxi, who was the president of Xi'an Institute of Fine Arts, completed the charcoal drawing script for the likeness of Chairman Mao on the fifth set of 100-Yuan notes. The Tibetan currency was one of Chinese regional currencies before liberation, and was also designed by professional painters. But in that age, the people never grasped the advanced technologies of zooming. In order to prevent the cut block for printing from losing its shape, the painter must draw on the real breadth of the paper money. So the general appearance of the picture needed to be very exquisite, and the painter being greatly skilled in the technique.

Surveying the whole breadth of Tibetan currency, designed by Zongdog Galsang Norbu, the traditional design style-the frame was made of lace or ball-flower was kept; in the meanwhile, Tibetan traditional patterns, like "harmony¡±,"eight auspiciousness" pavilions, terraces, towers, and religious characters, were elaborately added to the picture. These not only enhanced the function of forgery-proof currency, but also contained the full-bodied features of the regional nationality.

China Tibet Magazine
SoiQun