Page 40 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Thangka Collection

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A THANGKA OF AMITAYUS AND CONSORT
Tibet, 19th century
Distemper on cloth, with cloth mount, framed and glazed.
77 x 50 cm (30 3/8 x 19 6/8 in);
With cloth mount: 72 x 109 cm (28 3/8 x 43 in).

西藏十九世紀 無量壽佛像

Referenced 參考: Himalayan Art Resources item no.2201

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.91-92, no.74

出版及著錄： A.Neven著，《Etudes D’Art Lamaique et de
L’Himalaya》，布魯塞爾，1978年，頁91-92，編號74

The Buddha of Long Life seated in vajra posture on a lotus throne,
embracing his consort and the long-life vase on his lap, multiplied
fourteen times in the composition and surrounded by the Four
Directional Guardians, namely Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa and Ghanda, all
within a heavenly realm of vaporous clouds and grasslands.

Amitayus is probably the most popular long-life deity in Tibetan
Buddhism. In the present lot, the deity appears in his sambhogakaya,
or apparitional manifestation, one of the three bodies of the Buddha
referred to in the Mahayana tradition.

Amitayus is also a very popular meditational deity in Vajravana
Buddhism where he is highly revered for his longevity attributes,
magnetising red fire element, pure perception and awareness of
the emptiness of phenomena. According to the Larger Sūtra of
Immeasurable Life, compiled during the 1st or 2nd century A.D, the
infinite merits possessed by the deity resulted from the performance
of good deeds in his past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakara.
Having attained enlightenment, the deity was believed to reside in the
wondrous land of Sukhavati.

Embracing his consort, Amitayus symbolises the bliss of realisation,
the play of energy which manifests from the essential inseparability of
pleasure and voidness.

See a thangka depicting Amitayus and consort, 19th century, in
the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, illustrated on Himalayan Art
Resources, item no.372.

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