Page 16 - Blum Feinstein Tanka collection HIMALAYAN Art Bonhams March 20 2024

703
A THANGKA OF PADMASAMBHAVA THOTRENG TSAL
EASTERN TIBET, KHAM PROVINCE, CIRCA 19TH CENTURY
Distemper and gold on cloth; with original silk brocade mounts and silk curtain.
Inscribed on the verso with the ‘ye dharma hetu...’ Buddhist creed, Supratishtha
mantra and the following:

སྲིད་ཞིའི་སྐྱབས་ཀུན་སྙིང་པོ་ཐོད་ཕྲེང་རྩལ།
སྐུ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་རོལ་རྩལ་རིགས་ལྔའི་གར།
ཟུང་འཇུག་ཡབ་ཡུམ་བྱིན་མཐུས་བདག་གཞན་ཀུན།
འཁོར་འདས་གཞི་ཟད་ས་ལ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་རྩོལ།
ཅེས་པའང་གསང་བ་རྩལ་གྱིས་སོ།

Translated:
“Thotreng Tsal, Refuge of all beings of samsara and nirvana,
body and wisdom manifest emanations of five families,
By the blessings of father and mother consorts in union,
May the basis of samsara and nirvana of self and all beings,
Terminate effortlessly and bestow spontaneous presence.
Also by Sangwa Tsal.”

Inscribed on the recto identifying the figures in the upper register:
ལྷ་བཙུན་ནམ་མཁའ་འཇིགས་མེད། (Lha btsun nam mkha’ ‘jigs med)
པད་རི་མཆོག་སྤྲུལ་པད་མ་དབང་རྒྱལ། (pad ri mchog sprul pad ma dbang rgyal)

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1852
Image: 16 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (41.9 x 31.8 cm);
With Silks: 38 1/4x 22 1/4 in. (97.2 x 56.5 cm)

$15,000 - 20,000

藏東 康區 約十九世紀 蓮花生大士本初尊唐卡

This thangka represents a rare aspect of Padmasambhava. Holding a vajra and
skull cup, he appears as a white Buddha adorned with jewels and a tiger skin
pelt while embracing a nude consort with a chopper and skull cup. They are
attended by the Buddhas of the five families, Samantabhadra in yab yum alongside
Nyingma masters, and protector deities including an intriguing form of Rahula
whose lower torso constitutes the mouths of a snake and scorpion. The central
male figure’s iconography is very similar to one of the Eight Great Manifestations of
Padmasambhava as Orgyen Dorje Chang, who shares these same implements but
is normally depicted with blue skin.

(detail)

14 | BONHAMS
14 | BONHAMS