Page 24 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Thangka Collection

B Both these thangkas present the deities of the intermediate
TWO THANGKAS OF SAMANTABHADRA AND HERUKA
Eastern Tibet, 19th century
Distemper on cloth, both paintings with Tibetan inscriptions on the
reverse, with cloth mount.
76 x 56 cm (30 x 22 in); with mount: 103 x 78 cm (40 1/2 x 30 3/4 in)
76 x 56 cm (30 x 22 in); with mount: 107.5 x 79.5cm (42 1/8 x 31 1/4 in). (2). In one thangka, we can see the Primal Buddha, Samantabhadra
西藏東部十九世紀 普賢菩薩及赫魯嘎像 一組兩幅
Referenced 參考: Himalayan Art Resource item nos.2205 and 2206
Provenance 來源: The Jongen-Schleiper Collection of Fine Thangkas
Published and illustrated: A.Neven, Etudes D’Art Lamaique et de
L’Himalaya, Brussels, 1978, pp.96 and 98, nos.78 and 79
出版及著錄：
A.Neven著，《Etudes D’Art Lamaique et de L’Himalaya》
，布魯塞爾，1978年，頁96及98，編號78及79
B (Samantabhadra, reverse detail)
22 | BONHAMS
state (bardo) between death and reincarnation. The presence of
Samantabhadra, nude and blue with consort in one thangka, as well
as Heruka in the other thangka, leave no doubt about the Nyingma
order affiliation with both paintings.
(whose name means universal goodness), in union or yab-yum with
his pure white consort Samantabhadri. Samantabhadri is also known
as the ‘Great Mother’ and represents the clear light of the void or
enlightened awareness. The deep blue Primal Buddha and white
consort represent together the blissful essence of the universe and
all Buddhas. On the reverse of the painting, there is the following
inscription:
གདདོ ་ནས་རང་བངྱུ ་རགྟ ་པ་དམ་པའ་ི ཁམས། ཀནུ ་ཁབྱ ་ཡངོ ས་ཀྱ་ི འཆར་གཞི་དང་པའོ ི་མགནོ ། ཐགོ ་མཐའ་འཛནི ་པའ་ི སངྣ ་བས་བསླད་མིན་ཡང་
། བསལྐ ་བཟང་མགི ་ངོར་རྒྱལ་བའ་ི ཟསློ ་གར་བསྟན། ཆསོ ་སྐུ་ཀནུ ་ཏ་ུ བཟང་པོ་དབྱངི ས་ཉིད་ནས། ཞ་ི བའི་ལ་ྷ ཚོགས་བཞ་ི བཅ་ུ རྩ་གཉིས་ནི། འཇའ་
འདོ ་ཐགི ་ལེ་དངས་མའ་ི གཟུགས་ཉིད་དུ། ས་ོྤྲ བའ་ི བཀོད་པ་མཐའ་ཡས་འདརི ་བིསྲ ་པའི། དགེ་བ་མུ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་སྤནིྲ ་དཀར་ན།ི ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་
ཞིང་ཁམས་ར་ྱྒ མཚརོ ་སངོ ་བ་དེས། འག་ོྲ ཀུན་སྲདི ་པའི་ལམ་རིང་དུབ་རམྣ ས་ལ། ངལ་བསོ་བད་ེ བའ་ི བསིལ་སྱིནྦ ་ཐབོ ་གུྱར་ཅིག། ཅསེ ་པ་རང་གཞན་
ཡངོ ས་ལ་སྨན་པའ་ི སླད། ཡངོ ས་འཛནི ་བསྟན་པའི་ཉིན་བྱདེ ་བདག་ཉདི ་ཀསིྱ ། འདདོ ་པ་ཀནུ ་བངླ ས་བརྩནོ ་པ་ཆནེ ་པསོ ་བསབྲྒུ ས། དེ་མཐུས་འབེྲལ་
ཚད་དནོ ་ལནྡ ་ཉིད་གུརྱ ་ཅགི །
‘The realm of reality is natural and absolute from the very beginning,
Primordial Lord is the ground of the emergence of the all pervasive,
even untainted with conceptions of grasping at the beginning and end,
the drama of the victory display is in the eyes of the fortunate ones.
From the realm of the dharmakaya Samantabhadra, a group of forty
two peaceful deities, in the form of a clear drop of rainbow light, a
delight to paint [these] infinite emanations.
As for the white clouds of unlimited virtue, by floating in the realm of
the ten directions, for all beings on the long and tiring path of samsara,
may [they] attain the pleasure of relaxation and coolness.
So it is for the good of oneself and others, I, the tutor Tenpai Nyingje,
completing all my wishes with great effort, may the wishes of all those
connected also be meaningful.’
Translated by J.Watt & K.Gellek, February 2017.
The central figures are surrounded by an array of forty-two fierce
and gentle deities. These forty-two visions are produced by the
psyche of the deceased during the stage of the fifth bardo (known
as Chonyi bardo) which succeeds immediately after the moment of
death and which precedes the sixth and last stage of bardo when the
karmic energy of the individual is transmigrated to a new beginning.
The succession of visions and progression to the various stages is
dependent on the degree of mental perfection and the karmic nature
of the deceased. A lama usually assists in instructing the subject
before death in order to prepare the person to face these visions.
The void (shunyata) symbolised by the bell that some of the deities are
holding and which is the essence of all reality (dharmata) first appears
in the form of a dazzling light emanating from the supreme principle
which is symbolised by Samantabhadra in union with Samantabhadri.
This vision fades on the fifth day after death. It is then that Vairocana
appears, seen in the centre above the central figures, inaugurating
the first day of the fifth bardo proper. He is white and has as a main
attribute the wheel, whose eight rays symbolise the Eightfold way of
enlightenment.