Page 116 - Himalayan Art Macrh 19 2018 Bonhams

3045
A THANGKA OF SHRI SINGHA
TIBET, 18TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61515
Image: 31 x 19 3/4 in. (78.7 x 48.6 cm);
With Silks: 61 3/4 x 29 in. (155.2 x 73.6 cm)

$30,000 - 50,000

西藏 十八世紀 詩列星哈尊者唐卡

Born in Khotan, present-day Xinjiang autonomous region in China, Shri Singha (c.8th
century; tbrc.org P10718) is the third mortal master of the Nyingma’s Dzogchen lineage
arising from the Buddha Samantabhadra. He is famous for arranging the Dzogchen’s
‘Secret’ class of root teachings, as opposed to the ‘Space’ and ‘Mind’ classes forming
the other main categories of the core doctrine.

The Nyingma stress Buddhist teachings that developed within Tibet during the Yarlung
dynasty (7th-9th centuries). Unlike the other schools, they remained largely removed from
politics, never establishing a temporal seat of power or a supreme hierarch until one was
appointed by the Gelug Dalai Lama in the 20th century. Ironically, under the militaristic
‘unifying’ policies of the Fifth Dalai Lama in the 17th century, which that led to the near
eclipsing of rival schools, the Nyingma’s political neutrality allowed it to flourish.

This delicate 18th-century painting appears to blends both Central and Eastern
Tibetan painting styles, developed by the Gelug and Kagyu respectively. The painting
incorporates the Gelug preference for rich blue skies, bold flaming aureoles, and
contrived symmetry. While at the same time it shows elements developed by the Kagyu
school in exile, typified by gentle gradations in the rising sky, soft pastels, and landscape
elements that include direct borrowings from Chinese painting, such as the blue and
green rocky outcrops on the right and left edges of the painting.

The painting would have derived from a breathtaking set of Dzogchen masters. Our
principal figure sits above a mahasiddha’s tiger skin, wearing the pointed crimson hat
of Nyingma pandita. His graceful hand presents the gesture of warding off evil (karana
mudra) for the benefit of a small retinue before him comprised of Tibetan gods, kings,
spirits, guardians, and laypeople. In the clouds above, he is joined by Dorje Drolo in the
top left, and Lokatri, top right. Either side of the altar of scented kapalas below him are
Maning Mahakala, bottom left, and Chaturbhuja Mahakala, bottom right.

Another thangka of Shri Singha is held in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in
Wang, Tangka-Buddhist Painting of Tibet, Hong Kong, 2006, p.45 no.23. Another
thangka with similar color scheme and treatment of the robes is in the Asian Art Museum,
San Francisco (acc. no. B76D9)

Provenance
Sotheby’s, New York, 5 December 1992, lot 250
Private Collection, New York

114 | BONHAMS