Page 64 - Blum Feinstein Tanka collection HIMALAYAN Art Bonhams March 20 2024

This expression of the Buddha Shakyamuni depicts the enlightened master in hieratic scale
flanked by the Bodhisattva Maitreya and Bodhisattva Manjushri on the right. He sits atop curl-
tipped lotus petals, on an ornate jeweled throne decorated with bow-shaped makaras whose
tails converge at a wide-winged garuda. In the upper registers are the twenty-five confession
Buddhas, with sixteen arhats featured along the sides, and Shri Devi accompanied by her
retinue set in the lower landscape. A lama in the lower left receives direct blessings from the
long-life vase of Amitayus, represented by streams of golden light.

This visual rhetoric including the format and features of the Buddha and ornate architectural
throne conveys a visual tradition linked to Guge, and to both the influence of Kashmir art and
Indo-Nepalese aesthetics within this western Tibetan kingdom during the 15th/16th century.
Along the halo are six Gelug lamas, including the founder of the Tibetan school, Tsongkhapa.
His appearance here and in another Buddha image published by the famed explorer Giuseppe
Tucci (Klimburg-Salter, Discovering Tibet, New York, 2015, p. 89, cat. 2), provide visual
evidence that by the 15th century the region had established a relationship to the Gelug order.

The 15th century style of West Tibet retains its visual legacy in the wall paintings of the
monasteries of Tsaparang and Tholing, from which the Ngari painting tradition bears parallels
to this painting. For example, a Buddha from the Red Temple at Tsaparang (Linrothe,
Collecting Paradise, New York, 2014 p. 165, Fig. 3.11), wears a similarly styled patchwork gold
embroidered silk robe bearing green and blue hems. They share stylistic parallels in the features
of the Buddha including a rounded ushnisha and the angular flare of the earlobes. Moreover,
they are framed by columns with gold cornices encrusted with gems reaching the height of the
attending figures. The similarities between these Buddha paintings articulate the emergence of
the Ngari painting style which builds on its earlier Kashmiri influences, while also incorporating
elements of the broadly known Newar influences in Tibet.

Kashmir styles were adopted into West Tibet during the second dissemination (late 10th-12th
centuries) by the Kings of Purang-Guge. The Kings of West Tibet of the 15th century made a
historical connection to this lineage which is referenced in the Red Temple at Tholing. Further,
an inscription of another Buddha from Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (ibid, 2014, p. 163, Fig.
3.10) refers to a Kashmir style, with such affectations appearing in the elongated straight lids of
the eyes, the split widow’s peak of the forehead, and narrow mouth. The attendants too share
elements in their articulated navels, sloping shoulders, and layered dhotis with Kashmir idioms
of cast sculpture from an earlier period (ibid, 2014, p. 130, fig. 2.29). Although the relationship
to Kashmir holds a strong legacy within the region, Indo-Nepalese traditions were also well
established within Tibet. Newar aesthetics had a wide dissemination as Buddhism became
established into Tibet. Their distinctive patterns of scrollwork along the tails of the makara and
in the red background of the throne back were elements selectively incorporated into the visual
canon in the 15th century by Ngari painters in Guge.

This iconography of the twenty-five confession Buddhas, with arhats in the side registers
highlights the inclusion of Geluk lamas, which parallels another West Tibet thangka (HAR 7761).
The founder, Tsongkhapa is visible with his two main disciples in the Tucci Buddha. One of
those disciples is identified by inscription here and the other is likely represented though the
lettering is no longer legible. Another 16th century Amityaus surrounded by smaller emanations
of the deity, also from the Tucci expedition (Klimburg-Salter, Discovering Tibet, New York,
2015, p. 19, cat. 46), features Tsongkhapa over the deity’s head. His image is also prominently
depicted in the White Temple at Tholing, underscoring this his order’s prominence in the region
by the 15th century.

The Tucci Buddha makes a possible identification of the monk in the donor scene as the abbot
of Tholing Monastery, Guge Khenchen Ngawang Drakpa, who played a pivotal role in both
adopting Geluk traditions in West Tibet and who is credited for building the White Temple.
His image, identified by inscription on a bronze of the period, (Bonhams, New York, 14 March
2017, lot 3271) shows him holding a long-life vase. As the enthroned lama in the lower corner
of this painting receives the empowerments from Amitayus’s long-life vase, it offers a possible
correlation between the images, either in identity or in lineage.

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