The application of color is one of the most important aspects of thangka painting. The traditional thangka painter's palette consisted mainly of paints derived from mineral pigments of azurite (blue), cinnabar (red), malachite (green), lapis lazuli and ultramarine (blue), minium (orange), orpiment (yellow), calcium (earth white) and soot & ash (black).

Recognized universally as a symbol of wealth and beauty, gold was highly prized as a pigment by both artists and patrons in Tibet. The gold used in Tibetan painting was thought of as a pious offering, and the use of more gold could make the merit of the painting project greater than other thangkas. Traditionally, nearly every thangka used at least a little real gold.

Pure gold not only possesses its own precious color and luster, it also does not tarnish and is extremely workable. It can be drawn into very fine wires, or beaten so thin that light can pass through it. Even when applied in very thin layers, the reflective metal imparts luster and beauty to any surface. The ultimate application is the full gold thangka, where the composition is rendered with a bare minimum of dye and pigment, over a solid field of unburnished gold. The minimum use is when only outlines and certain details are painted in gold.