Nobody knows where and when Tang originated, but comparing with Tibetan painting, the history of Tangka can be traced back to as long as Tubo period. From the relics of Karuo in Qamdo,we can find the trace of Tangka. Until 7 century, Songzang Ganbu united the whole Tibet which a new period in Tibetan history began. Later Songzan Ganbu married Nepal princess Chizun and Tang dynasty princess called Wencheng which further strengthened the connection of politics, economy, and culture between Tibetan and Han nationalities. The two princesses came to Tibet with a lot of Buddha scriptures, architecture technology,soothsaying and lawmaking, medical scriptures and many skilled artisans. These greatly stimulated the development of Tibetan society. During the Tobo period a lot of monasteries like Yongbu Lakang, the Potala Palace, Papengka Palace, Qiangbamingjiulin Palace, Qingpu,zhama, Pangtang and other palaces were built which certainly furthered the painting development. According to the 5th Dalai lama " Songzan Ganbu painted a White Lamu statue in his blood and later,the Living Buhhda called Guozhuxi hided this painting inside his White Lamu statue. At the present, we can no longer find this tangka painted by this great Tobo king , but we can concluded that Tangka first appeared in Songzang ganbu period because during this period, the Tibetan Buddhism greatly developed and with the development of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism culture also flourished . At that time fresco alone could not satisfied the need of those disciples. So another kind of art Tangka appeared which is easy to carry ,hang, and collect. From this time , Tangka became a famous art in Tibet.

At the middle of 8th century or 9th century, that is the period of Chisong Dezan and Chire Bajin period, because of the support of Tobo royal family, great progress had been made in the making of Tangka, at the later period, Zanpo Langda ordered to destroy the Buddha statues and monasteries , most of the valuable Tangka at that time was destroyed . So now we can not find Tangka made at that period. Until to the middle of 9 century, after the destroy of Tobo Kingdom, the whole Tibet was splitted into many small parts and the social economy suffered great damage. Tangka saw no progress in Ming Song and Yuan dynasty.

During Ming and Qing dynasty, in order to strength the control of Tibet, the central government adopted the system of approving Tibetan chieftain to strength the control over Tibet. During the Ming dynasty , the central government approved altogether eight Tibetan chieftains and during the Qing dynasty, the central government approved Dalai Lama, Panchan, and Hutu Ketu . These methods made contribution to the development of the Tibetan society. So the Ming and Qing dynasty saw a great progress in the development of Tangka and Tangka of this period of time had three characteristics. One was the number of Tangka became larger, the other was different schools having developed at that time, and another is the appearance of many painting organizations. From the existing Tangka , they most of them were made during the Ming and Qing dynasty.