Page 24 - Blum Feinstein Tanka collection HIMALAYAN Art Bonhams March 20 2024

707
A THANGKA OF HAYAGRIVA
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:

མ་ཆགས་པད་མའི་རིགས་མཆོག་གསུང་གི་བདག།
ཆེ་བའི་ཁྲོ་རྒྱལ་དབང་མཛད་ཡི་དམ་ལྷ།
བཀའ་བསྟན་རྒྱུད་གསུམ་དྲེགས་པའི་འཁོར་ཚོགས་བཅས།
དམ་ཚིག་རྟེན་འདིར་དབྱེར་མེད་པྲ་ཏིཥྠ།
ཅེས་པའང་གསང་བ་རྩལ་གྱིས་སོ།

Translated:
“Lotus family of supreme speech,
The great wrathful kings and overpowering deities,
all the protectors and attendants mentioned in Kangyur, Tengyur and Tantras,
May they remain in this object of worship with great Samaya,
Also by Sangwa Tsal.”

Inscribed on the recto identifying the figures in the upper register:
རྒྱལ་བ་མཆོག་དབྱངས། (rgyal ba mchog dbyangs)
སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྒོམ་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། (skyabs rje sgom chen Rin po che)
གོང་ས་ལྔ་པ། (Gong sa lnga pa) [The 5th Dalai Lama]
པད་རི་པད་མ་དབང་རྒྱལ་རྡོ་རྗེ། (pad ri Pad ma dabng rgyal rdo rje)

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1854
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 馬頭明王唐卡

This thangka illustrates the ‘Secret Accomplishment’ form of Hayagriva, the
wrathful emanation of the Buddha Amitabha and fearsome protector of the Dalai
Lamas, whose recognizable features include the three horse heads in green that
appear above his wavy hair. Presented in the upper registers of the painting are
four male teachers. The monk on the right holding a white lotus with a yellow
pandita hat and a purbha tucked in his belt is the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngagwang
Lobzang Gyatso (1617-82), whereas the monk on the left wearing a distinctive
blue shirt likely represents the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1706).
The white-robed figure to his left reappears on another painting from this set
(Lot 701), where he is identified as Jangdak Tashi Tobgyel (1550-1603), the
reincarnation of Ngari Paṇchen Pema Wangyel (1487-1542) and the father of
Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo (1580-1639), the founder of Dorje Drak monastery,
which the Great Fifth supported.

(detail)

22 | BONHAMS
22 | BONHAMS