Page 34 - Blum Feinstein Tanka collection HIMALAYAN Art Bonhams March 20 2024

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A LARGE THANGKA OF AN INDIAN PANDITA
EASTERN TIBET, 19TH CENTURY
Distemper on cloth.
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1877
Image: 84 x 76 in. (217.2 x 201.9 cm)

$30,000 - 50,000

藏東 十九世紀 印度班智達唐卡

Seated in a mountain valley with cloud-capped peaks is this towering image of a
lama, who carries a travel bag normally associated with Atisha and wears lavish
robes together with an orange pandita hat with windblown earflaps. He displays
the gesture of reassurance in response to receiving offerings of fruits from a male
donor and his canine companion.

This large thangka of an Indian pandita likely originates from Amdo in eastern Tibet,
where paintings of this scale were conventional. It is from a set depicting the Six
Jeweled Ornaments and Two Excellent Ones, also known as the eight foremost
teachers. Of the group two other are known which were sold in Sotheby’s, New
York, 20 March 1997, lot 87 . Also compare a large thangka of Padmasambhava,
which is preserved in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington D.C. (Rhie &
Thurman, A Shrine for Tibet, 2009, p. 107, no. II-3). Also compare with a related
portrait of Sakyapra in the Art Institute of Chicago (Pal, Tibet:Tradition and Change,
1997, p. 15, no. 7.

Provenance
Sotheby’s, New York, 19 September 1996, lot 63

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