Page 56 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Thangka Collection

17 (front view & reverse detail) 17
18 A THANGKA OF TSONGKHAPA AND THE GELUGPA REFUGE
TREE
Tibet, 19th century
Distemper on cloth, the reverse inscribed in Tibetan with ‘om, ah,
hum’, and another Tibetan inscription, with original silk brocaded
mount, framed and glazed.
48 x 30cm (18 7/8 x 11 6/8 in);
With silk mount: 121 x 75 cm (47 5/8 x 29 1/2 in)

西藏十九世紀 宗喀巴上師皈依境圖

Referenced 參考: Himalayan Art Resources item no.2160

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, p.22, no.7

出版及著錄： A.Neven著，《Etudes D’Art Lamaique et de
L’Himalaya》，布魯塞爾，1978年，頁22，編號7

On the reverse, the inscription reads:

༅༎ སྐབྱ ས་གནས་ཀནུ ་འདསུ ་བ་ླ མ་ལྷ་ཡི་ཚོགས།
བིྱན་རབླ ས་སངྣ ་བརནྙ ་འདིར་ནི་བརྟན་བཞུགས་ལ།
བདག་སགོ ས་མཁའ་མཉམ་འགོ་ྲ བ་མ་ལུས་པ།
དསུ ་སྐབས་ཀནུ ་ཏ་ུ རྗེས་ཟངུ ས་བནྱི ་གིྱས་རོླབས། བཀྲ་ཤིས།

‘To the collection of teachers and deities all sources of refuge,
Remain forever in this blessed image,
I, along with all beings equal to the sky,
In all times keeping close to you, grant your blessings.’

Translation by J.Watt & K.Gellek, February 2017.

Depicting the founding teacher of the Gelug Tradition, Tsongkhapa
(1357-1419), seated at the centre holding an image of Shakyamuni
Buddha and a begging bowl, surrounded by lineage teachers,
meditational deities and protectors. This painting is a liturgical
composition representing the field of accumulation of credit, serving
as a visual aid reminding the devotees of the hierarchical importance
of the teacher, Buddha, religious texts and tutelary deities within their
religious tradition.

Compare with a similar thangka, depicting a Refuge Field, 19th
century, in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, illustrated on
Himalayan Art Resources, item no.556.

18
A THANGKA OF THE SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA FIELD OF
ACCUMULATION
Tibet, 19th century
Distemper on cloth; with silk brocaded mount, framed and glazed.
75.5 x 55 cm (29 3/4 x 20 5/8 in);
With cloth mount: 138.5 x 86.5 cm (53 1/2 x 32 1/4 in)

西藏十九世紀 釋迦牟尼佛皈依境圖

Referenced 參考: Himalayan Art Resources item no.2220

Provenance 來源: The Jongen-Schleiper Collection of Fine Thangkas

The Buddha at the centre with Vajradhara at the heart, surrounded by
the teachers of the lineage of Maitreya on the upper left and that of
Manjushri on the upper right. Deities, buddhas and bodhisattvas are
placed below along with the Dharma protectors at the bottom.

Compare with a similar thangka of the Shakyamuni Buddha Field of
Accumulation, in the Yonghegong Palace, illustrated in The Treasured
Thangkas in Yonghegong Palace, Beijing, 1998, p.89; and a related
thangka of the Shakyamuni Buddha Field of Accumulation, 19th
century, is in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, acc.no.P1999.10.3.