Crimson & Purple & Violet

Purple (rich, medium — the sacred purple of the most important Tibetan thangka silk brocade border — the characteristic rich medium purple of the most carefully woven and the most precisely chosen silk frame for the most important Tibetan devotional painting) and Violet (deep, vivid — the deep vivid violet of the Tibetan amethyst — the most sacred and the most immediately mystically charged gemstone in the Tibetan Buddhist mineral tradition — the specific deep violet-to-purple of the finest Tibetan amethyst used in the most important ritual objects) create the most specifically Tibetan Buddhist and the most immediately devotionally charged cool pair — the silk frame and the sacred stone. Against Crimson's passionate deity-body warm, this creates the most specifically Tibetan thangka painting palette.

The palette is the visual world of Tibetan thangka painting — the most immediately sacred and the most comprehensively devotional of all Buddhist visual art forms (thangka — Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ — thang-ka — literally 'rolled-up painting' — the most important portable devotional painting form in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist culture — painted on cotton or silk using the most precisely prepared mineral pigments and the most specifically gold line work — used as the most direct support for meditation and devotional practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition). The thangka palette: the deep vivid crimson of the major deity body color (the characteristic vivid crimson of the most important wrathful deity in the Tibetan Buddhist iconographic tradition — particularly Mahakala — the most important wrathful protector deity — and Hayagriva — the horse-headed bodhisattva — both of whose bodies are traditionally painted in the most vivid and the most immediately arresting crimson); the rich medium purple of the silk brocade border (the characteristic medium rich purple of the most carefully selected and the most precisely woven Chinese silk brocade fabric used to frame and protect the most important thangka paintings — the specific rich purple of the border fabric being one of the most prestigious and the most carefully chosen elements of the complete thangka mounting); and the deep vivid violet of the amethyst devotional stone (the characteristic deep vivid violet of the most highly valued Tibetan Buddhist ritual crystal objects — amethyst being the most specifically violet and the most directly devotionally appropriate of the widely available gemstone minerals in the Himalayan Buddhist material culture).