National Intangible Cultural Heritage: Tanchong-Paint Making Technique
The technique of making the paint of tanchong, or the colourful painting on traditional Korean-style buildings, is a method of making mild tanchong paint of classical beauty created by the intelligent and resourceful Korean ancestors. It is still used to decorate and protect the wooden parts of buildings of relics and Korean-style structures.
Tanchong means painting the wooden parts, walls and ceilings of buildings with drawings or patterns of various colours.
It originated in applying mineral pigments to the timber of wooden buildings in a bid to prevent it from being rotten or damaged by rain and wind.
With the development of history and the gradual enhancement of the people’s awareness, the aesthetic demand for tanchong rose. In the course of this, relevant paints and adhesives suited to the characteristics of timber were developed, and various means and methods of drawing decorative patterns and pictures on them were introduced.
Glues from animal fat and vegetable oils extracted from perilla, hemp seed, soybean and castor bean were used as surface adhesives.
The colouring of tanchong with a long history can be found in the tomb murals dating back to the period of Koguryo. As the Koguryo tomb murals unearthed so far still preserve their original state, they give a glimpse of gorgeous colouring in those days. And the colour contrast in the murals shows the colour perception of painters in those days.
In the period of Koguryo, the Korean ancestors used a systematic colour-mixing method, free from the primitive colouring method.
Old books record the technique of gorgeous and elegant colourful paintings. The beautiful and graceful tanchong is unthinkable apart from the technique of making pigments.
The tanchong-paint making technique, handed down through a long historical change, has been carried forward and developing thanks to the Workers’ Party of Korea’s policy on conserving national heritage.
The technique was inscribed as No. 121 on the list of national intangible heritage on November 7, 2023.