Wall-painting Conservation
THF's wall-painting conservation programs has three main aims:
- research and identify historic wall-painting technologies used within the Tibetan cultural realm
- train local restorers
- help to preserve endangered historic wall-paintings
The program is carried out in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt (TFH), Prof. Meinhard Landmann and Suzy Hesse; German restorers Christine and Patrick Jürgens and Romanian restorer Anca Nicolaescu. Uli Eltgen and Ute Griesser have also been involved.
Currently THF has three trainees, in Ladakh Yangchen Dolma and Skrama Lotus, and in Qinghai Ms Choekyi. The two Ladakhi students will spend three months at the Erfurt University (TFH) this year to learn working with tools and technologies in the conservation laboratories.
Current wall-painting THF conservation projects include the Leh Guru Lhakhang, the Leh Red Maitreya Temple and the Alchi Tsatsapuri Temple (Ladakh), the Achung Namdzong cave temple and Ragya Monastery's Gyupa Dratsang (Qinghai).
Photo: the Ladakh Wall-painting conservation team 2005. Suzy Hesse from Erfurt University of Applied Sciences with the two trainees Yangchen and Skarma and overall nice guy Daniel.
Photo: Anca Nicolaescu investigating the 15th century wall-paintings in the Red Maitreya Temple in Leh.
Photo below: Christine Jürgens cleaning and stabilizing murals in the Achung Namdzong cave in Qinghai. Christine Jürgens has also prepared a toolkit for THF's wall-painting program, and we plan to publish here the results of our reserach of wall-painting technologies, such as pigment analysis and analysis of composition of painting layers.