Page 31 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Thangka Collection

3 These tales of the Buddha’s past lives are known as Jataka tales and
A THANGKA OF SCENES FROM THE PAST LIVES OF underscore the practice of the ‘six perfections’: giving, moral practice,
SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA patience, effort, meditation, and wisdom. Over the centuries, there
Tibet, 18th century have been many variations from and sometimes additions to these
Distemper on cloth, the reverse with a line drawing of a stupa, with stories. One such collection is the Avadanakalpalata (Leaves of the
cloth mount, framed and glazed. Heaven Tree), a moralistic poem consisting of 108 jataka tales, by
77 x 49 cm (30 1/4 x 19 1/4 in); Kshemendra, an 11th century Kashmiri author. The current thangka
With cloth mount: 117 x 75 cm (46 x 29 1/2 in) depicts ten scenes from the Avadanakalpalata, sections 91 to 100:

西藏十八世紀 釋迦牟尼佛源流圖 91. Rishi Suprabha
92. The Rishi Who Accomplished the End of the Age
Referenced 參考: Himalayan Art Resources item no.2171 93. Ketumati
94. Shyamakam
Provenance 來源: The Jongen-Schleiper Collection of Fine Thangkas 95. Brahma Suryamala Prahana
96. Rishi Dhundubi
Published and Illustrated: A.Neven, Etudes D’Art Lamaique et de 97. King Nemi
L’Himalaya, Brussels, 1978, pp.34, 36, no.17 98. Bhikshu Utpala Mukha
99. Bodhisattva Virbala
出版及著錄： A.Neven著，《Etudes D’Art Lamaique et de 100. The Magnificent One
L’Himalaya》，布魯塞爾，1978年，頁34及36，編號17
Compare with a related series of thangkas illustrating the former lives
This thangka depicts Shakyamuni Buddha in the centre of the of Shakyamuni, 18th century, illustrated in The Complete Collection of
composition, and narrates ten episodes from one of his previous Treasures of the Palace Museum: Tangka-Buddhist Painting of Tibet,
incarnations. The palette and shaded hills of brown and green, as well Hong Kong, 2006, pp.64-95; see also D.Klimburg-Salter, Discovering
as the bold red halos around diminutive figures, support the view that Tibet: The Tucci Expeditions and Tibetan Paintings, Milan, 2015,
the painting was probably produced in Eastern Tibet. See a related p.228, no.64.
example in D.P.Jackson, The Place of Provenance: Regional Styles in
Tibetan Painting New York, 2012, p.64. THE JONGEN-SCHLEIPER COLLECTION | 29