Traditional thangka painters grind their own colours from stones and earth: lapis lazuli or azurite for blue, malachite for green, cinnabar for red and orpiment for yellow, mixed with animal glue. Many cheaper paintings today use acrylic or poster colour instead, and the difference shows once you know what to look for.

Mineral colours have a soft, matte depth and the blues look slightly grainy up close, while acrylic tends to be flat, glossy and a bit too even. Gold outlines in a traditional piece are real gold that has been burnished, so they catch the light from an angle instead of shining like metallic paint. Buy authentic thangka painting from sellers who will tell you which pigments were used and share close-up photos taken in daylight rather than edited studio shots.

Neither option is wrong for a decorative piece, but for practice or as a long term investment the natural pigments are worth the extra cost. They also age more gracefully, mellowing slowly instead of yellowing or peeling.