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

705
A THANGKA OF KRISHNA YAMARI
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:

ཀུན་བཟང་འཇམ་དཔལ་དཔའ་བོ་གཤིན་རྗེའི་གཤེད།
མཐུ་སྟོབས་ཕྱག་བརྒྱས་འཁོར་འདས་ཟིལ་གནོན་ལྷ།
དབྱེར་མེད་འདིར་བཞུགས་ཕྱི་ནང་དགྲ་བགེགས་དཔུང་།
ཚར་གཅོད་རང་རིག་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྩལ་རྫོགས་མཛོད།
ཅེས་པའང་གསང་བ་རྩལ་གྱིས་དད་པའི་རྟེན་དུ་བཞེངས་སོ།

Translated:
“The lord of death, Manjushri Vajra and Samantabhadra,
And the one who overcame samsara and nirvana,
With fully fledged self-awareness wisdom,
Remain here in this object inseparably and defeat outer and inner enemies and
obstacles.
Also by Sangwa Tsal.”

Inscribed on the recto identifying the figures in the upper register:
གནུབ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས། (gnum songs rgyas ye shes)
འཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན། (‘jam dpal bshes gnyen)
སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཟིལ་གནོན་བཞད་པ་རྩལ། (skyabs mgon zil gnon bzhad pa rtsal)

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1848
Image: 16 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (41.9 x 31.8 cm);
With Silks: 38 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. (97.2 x 56.5 cm)

$15,000 - 20,000

藏東 康區 約十九世紀 黑閻摩敵唐卡

The Heruka, or Blood Drinker, is a class of meditational deity who appears as
wrathful male deities with three faces, six arms, and a pair of outstretched wings.
This specific form of Heruka from the Nyingma ‘Revealed Treasure’ tradition is
known as Krishna Yamari, who is distinguished by the vajra-finial emerging from his
head, and a smaller representation of Rakta-Yamari at the center of his torso. His
female consort clings to his side. Located at the upper right is the Fifth Dalai Lama,
Ngagwang Lobzang Gyatso (1617-82), who is referred by the tantric name specific
to him. Within the larger context of these seven thangkas, the inscription indicates
that the rituals of these Nyingma guru yoga and meditational deities were practiced
by the Fifth Dalai Lama.

(detail)

18 | BONHAMS
18 | BONHAMS