Computer-aided generation of mandala thangka patterns

Abstract

The mandala thangka, as a religious art in Tibetan Buddhism, is an invaluable cultural and artistic heritage. However, drawing a mandala is both time and effort consuming and requires mastery skills due to its intricate details. Retaining and digitizing this heritage is an unresolved research challenge to date. In this paper, we propose a computer-aided generation approach of mandala thangka patterns to address this issue. Specifically, we construct parameterized models of three stylistic patterns used in the interior mandalas of Nyingma school in Tibetan Buddhism according to their geometric features, namely the star, crescent and lotus flower patterns. Varieties of interior mandalas are successfully generated using these proposed patterns based on the hierarchical structures observed from hand drawn mandalas. The experimental results show that our approach can efficiently generate beautifully-layered colorful interior mandalas, which significantly reduces the time and efforts in manual production and, more importantly, contributes to the digitization of this great heritage.