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in a Tibetan-style arch of glory, he is protected and glorified All this visual information is luxuriously packaged in fine
by a cloud-borne, jewelled canopy typical of Ming Buddhist kesi, a medium that imparts value through its demanding
paintings. technique, capacity for delicate design and subtle coloration,
While expressing Śākya Yeshé’s divinity in visual terms and durability. As the old saying goes, ‘an inch of kesi is
intelligible to virtually any Buddhist of the time, the kesi worth an ounce of gold’. From the Song dynasty onwards,
portrayal is temporally localised like a Chinese ancestor or an kesi was used to emulate and copy fine paintings. In the Yuan
imperial portrait by the depiction of material goods signifying dynasty, imperial workshops led by the Nepalese master
the subject’s worldly status. The palatial furnishings – the Anige (1245–1306) and his followers translated Buddhist
carpet, the marble-topped red lacquer table with gold-filled subjects and imperial portraits into woven images. In light
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incised designs and the magnificent throne – are meticulously of this tradition, making a portrait of Śākya Yeshé in kesi was
detailed. The throne is similar in general form and scale to an inspired diplomatic stroke that honoured its Tibetan
the one occupied by Daoyan, but it is far more lavish. Inset subject with a dazzling display of Chinese artistry and
with jewels and fitted with carved dragon heads holding craftsmanship.
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jewelled lotus pendants, it resembles the dragon thrones As noted above, Śākya Yeshé appears as a small
depicted in the portraits of the Yongle and Xuande secondary figure in a number of textile thangkas of
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emperors. Śākya Yeshé’s chair is, of course, less luxurious meditational deities. Placed in the upper right corner in
than the imperial seats, with four rather than six dragons, these works, he is shown seated cross-legged on an inverted
and the carpet beneath it is less exquisitely patterned than lotus pedestal within an elaborate arch, much as he appears
those under the emperors’ thrones, as was appropriate to his in the embroidered portrait, but he wears a black hat
lower but still exalted status as a Dharma King. designed like a five-Buddha crown and an enveloping cape
In the tapestry as in the embroidered portrait, Śākya like those pictured in the kesi portrait. In other words, these
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Yeshé wears Tibetan-style upper and lower garments and a small images combine features seen in both the embroidered
patchwork-patterned kāṣāya. Here, however, the ensemble is and kesi portraits of the master. The primary subjects of
topped by a heavy meditation cloak with gold-on-gold these thangkas match those listed in the Tibetan inscription
patterns of imperial dragons, ruyi-shaped clouds and other under the kesi portrait. According to this inscription, along
auspicious motifs, recalling references in the Ming Veritable with the portrait, Śākya Yeshé’s followers Amogha and
Records (Ming shilu 明實錄) to gold damask cloaks given to an Sonam Sherab sponsored images of Kālacakra
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emissary sent by Śākya Yeshé and others in 1423. The Chakrasaṃvara, Hevajra, Vajrabhairava and Mahachakra.
master’s ornate black hat features a red jewel set on top of a Xiong Wenbin’s Chinese rendering of this inscription does
gold vajra, a red sun and white crescent moon on the crown, not specify the medium of the images, but he identifies them
and five plaques bearing golden Buddha images to resemble as kesi thangkas. We do not know if they contained small
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the five-Buddha initiation crown used in Vajrayana rituals. images of Śākya Yeshé. Nevertheless, it is not much of a
This hat, which has been identified as an imperial gift, stretch to imagine that his disciples would have honoured
became a standard part of Śākya Yeshé’s iconography. their guru’s relationship to the great meditational deities by
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Overall, the words and material goods in the picture commissioning images like the kesi Chakrasaṃvara thangka
match Ming court records of what was bestowed upon (68 x 56cm), formerly in the Carolyn and Wesley Halpert
eminent Tibetan clerics, including monks’ clothing, fine silk collection, where Śākya Yeshé occupies the upper right
fabrics, gold and silver vessels, ritual objects, Buddhist corner and is paired with Vajradhāra on the left. A kesi
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images, scriptures, official titles and seals of office. In the kesi Hevajra thangka with the same composition and border
portrait Śākya Yeshé is awash in such imperial gifts. On his belongs to the Potala Palace, and a very similar kesi of
left, rendered in gold in Chinese and Tibetan, is the full title Vajrabhairava reportedly remains in the Yumbu Lakhar
granted him by the Xuande emperor in 1434. To his right is temple in the Yarlung valley in central Tibet.
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a copy of the red impression of his imperially bestowed seal, In sum, the kesi portrait of Śākya Yeshé is special by
with the legend reading ‘Seal of the Supremely Good virtue of its documentation and reasonably rare medium,
Dharma King of Great Compassion’ written in the nine-fold and is distinguished from the embroidered portrait by its
seal script (jiudie zhuan 九疊篆) style preferred for official mixture of mundane and extramundane references, with the
seals. Although the vajra and vajra bell are the master’s visual weight tipped to the former. However, both portraits
standard attributes, they also correspond to the emperor’s were simultaneously icons, visual counterparts to written
gifts of ritual implements, as do the bronze (or copper) accounts of Śākya Yeshé’s lavish reception by the Yongle and
incense burner with a cover in the shape of a lion and the Xuande emperors, and vehicles for communicating the
tortoise shell incense box on the table. The red sūtra case court’s esteem for the master and the new but already
decorated with gold dragon designs, also on the table, recalls powerful Gelug order that he represented.
gifts of Buddhist scriptures. This remarkable collection was Stepping back to look at the portraits of Śākya Yeshé and
certainly intended to convey the exquisitely deferential Daoyan in the same frame, it is easy to find general
treatment accorded Śākya Yeshé at the Ming court, but it connections between them. They belong to the same era,
also evokes, perhaps more importantly, the reciprocal nature possibly even the same decade, and share basic concerns
of his relationship with the emperor: he gave the emperor with their subjects’ physiognomy, discipline-specific ritual
enlightening teachings, efficacious rites and religious status, regalia, and material indicators of status. All three bear the
and received in return court rituals, royal status and a grand highest titles bestowed on their subjects by the Ming court,
array of prestige objects. in each case rendered in gold. The differences between the

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