Page 158 - Ming_China_Courts_and_Contacts_1400_1450 Craig lunas

(ghanta) essential ritual implements of Vajrayana and
,
attributes of a number of Tantric deities. Śākya Yeshé’s
44
halo is rendered with a single fine gold line like the haloes of
the deities in the upper corners of the composition, the blue
figure of the primordial Buddha Vajradhāra on the left and
White Tārā, the female Buddha of longevity, on the right.
His lotus seat with inverted petals rests on a Mount Sumeru
pedestal decorated with jewels, scrolling designs and
upturned corners. Most spectacularly, he occupies a
fantastic decorative niche, or ‘arch of glory’, composed of the
‘six ornaments’, white elephants, blue lions, winged rams,
lotus-bearing devas, crocodilian Makaras, Nāgas or serpent
deities and a crowning winged Garuda. The scrolling
designs and arch of glory were Nepalese-inspired elements of
Tibetan art echoed in temples of the Ming capitals and other
45
parts of China where Tibetan Buddhism was practised.
The interplay between Chinese and Tibetan elements in the
embroidered portrait continues in the bilingual inscriptions
that proclaim Śākya Yeshé’s temporal and eternal identities
by giving the key parts of his imperially bestowed title:
Supremely Good (Zhishan 至善) Dharma King of Great
Compassion and Universally Penetrating Buddha. Thus
enshrined, accompanied, haloed, liturgically equipped and
labelled, Śākya Yeshé is presented as a Buddha and
Plate 16.8 Vajrabhairava, Ming dynasty, c. 1434 (Xuande reign). implicitly the emperor’s guru, in accordance with the
Thangka, silk embroidery, image height 79cm, width 62cm. Potala Tibetan practice of worshiping one’s guru as a fully
Palace, Lhasa enlightened Buddha. Finally, the icon is bordered by
46
mantras written in gold Läntsa script, a decorative form of
awarded by the Ming court, Consecration Preceptor of State Sanskrit used in Tibet for such sacred texts.
Amogha (Ch. Guanding Guoshi Amuge 灌頂國師阿木葛) Śākya Yeshé appears as a small secondary figure in a
and Preceptor of State Sonam Sherab (Ch. Guoshi Suonan number of textile thangkas of meditational deities. One of
Xirao 國師索南喜饒), as responsible for the thangka’s these, an embroidered Vajrabhairava thangka (Pl. 16.8) in
manufacture. Xiong proposes that this took place between the Potala Palace, is comparable to the embroidered portrait
1434 and 1443 in an imperial weaving workshop in Jiangnan, in size (79 x 62cm) and composition, and it shares motifs such
the region south of the lower Yangtze River. Until the late as the red-topped lotus seat with a single layer of inverted
41
20th century, it was kept at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, which petals, Mount Sumeru pedestal with upturned corners,
was founded by Śākya Yeshé in 1418 and is recognised as one decorative niche topped by Makaras and a Garuda, and
of the three great Gelug monasteries. auspicious coloured clouds. Also like the portrait, this
42
Both portraits of Śākya Yeshé mix Chinese and Tibetan Vajrabhairava thangka is framed by a Läntsa-script border.
47
elements, but the latter dominate the embroidered image, There are, of course, significant iconographic variations,
the smaller of the two works (76 x 65cm) (see Pl. 16.2). From from the shapes of the clouds to the use of lotus columns to
the Chinese tradition come the auspiciously coloured ruyi support the Makaras of the ornate niche. Nevertheless, the
clouds and the degree of individualisation in the master’s visual formula suggests that both works came from a series
face. He is portrayed as a jowly, ageing man with puffy eyes or set of images, albeit not from the same one.
and furrowed brow. He wears Tibetan garments, a sleeveless The larger (109 x 64cm), more impressive kesi portrait of
upper garment and a lower robe, under an opulent red-and- Śākya Yeshé (see Pl. 16.3) shares a number of features with
gold kāṣāya with floral borders. Like a Buddha, he sits in vajra the embroidered image, including attention to the
(cross-legged) posture, facing forward, and makes the individuality of the master’s face. He appears thinner and
dharmachakra mudra (Dharma wheel or teaching hand older in the kesi but again has a deeply lined face, sagging
gesture). An ornate Vajrasattva headdress signifies his jaws and accentuated eye sockets. Presumably the artists
perfection of yogic meditation and complete worked from a painting that provided a fairly detailed report
enlightenment. His corporeality notwithstanding, the on his physiognomy in the manner of the portrait of Daoyan.
43
master inhabits an otherworldly realm of brilliant colours Śākya Yeshé’s Buddhahood is also signified in many of the
and strong colour contrasts, geometric order and fantastic same ways in the kesi as in the embroidery: he again has a
creatures on a flat black ground. He is visually integrated halo, sits in a fully frontal vajra posture, makes the teaching
into this divine world by the whiteness of his flesh, the mudra, and holds the stems of lotus flowers, one supporting a
triangular form of his posture, the flat geometric patterns of vajra sceptre and the other a vajra bell. His lotus-flower seat,
his kāṣāya uninterrupted by folds, and the fabulous red and however, is very discreetly placed under the step below his
golden lotus flowers he holds by their stems. The flowers throne, perhaps due to its visual incongruity with the rest of
magically support a golden vajra sceptre and vajra bell the physical environment, and rather than being enshrined

148 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450