Framing
Thangkas without a brocade require some kind of frames. Some guidelines
below.
 Custom
frames
Generally made of wood, often painted with gold, custom hard frames
give the best protection for a thangka and are many times the only
possibility with higher quality artworks.
There are some important things that you don't necessarily get from
an averge framing shop without asking: All cardboard should be acid-free.
It would be better if the paints do not touch the glass. This can
be done with a colored cardboard frame between the glass and the painting
(the red inner frame in the photo). All the thangkas have a 1 inch
border, usually red, which will be hidden behind the cardboard frame.
Also it would be better if the framer didn't use glue to fix the painting.
 Glass
The thangkas can be framed with or without a glass. The drawback of
using a glass is reflecting light, but it has many benefits. Cleaning,
protecting, moving and preserving the thangka becomes easier. We,
ourselves, use a glass with every framed thangka.
For the people, who can afford the absolute best, there is special
non-reflecting glass, which is even difficult to see. We sometimes
tried matte glass to avoid reflecting light, but didn't like the result
much. It is very important to protect the painting from direct sunlight.
It may be possible to find special UV-glass to protects the paints
from ultraviolet rays.
Ready-made hard frames
Ready-made frames are an affordable way to quickly frame a thangka.
If the size is good and the background carboard is of right color,
they can look quite good. One problem is that the paint touches the
glass and may stick after some  years.
Also, the edges of the canvas are not always cleanly cut. Both of
these problems are solved, if you cut a colored cardboard frame, and
place it between the the painting and the glass, as explained above
with the custom frames.
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