Page 68 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Thangka Collection
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23 The Fourth Dalai Lama is shown seated under a fruiting tree amidst a
TWO RARE THANGKAS OF THE FOURTH AND green mountainous landscape with a monastery. In his right hand he
FIFTH DALAI LAMAS holds a skullcup (kapala). On the lower register of the painting is Yama
Tibet, circa 1900 Dharmaraja and consort atop an ox. Mahakala and Panchen Choky
Distemper on cloth, the thangka of the Fifth Dalai Lama with an Gyaltsen (1570-1662) float above in the top left corner.
inscription on the reverse, both with mounts, framed and glazed.
71.5 x 44 cm (28 1/8 x 17 2/8 in); The Fourth Dalai Lama, was a descendant of the Mongol leader Altan
With mount: 125 x 64.5 cm (49 2/8 x 25 3/8 in) Khan. His identification was advantageous for the establishment of the
74.5 x 45 cm (29 3/8 x 17 3/4 in); Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia. Enjoying the patronage
With mount: 106.5 x 66 cm (41 3/4 x 26 in). (2). of the Tumed Mongols, Yonten Gyatso did not travel to Tibet until
he was over ten years old in 1600 to be formally recognised by the
西藏約1900年 四世及五世達賴喇嘛像 一組兩幅 Tibetan Drepung establishment in Lhasa.
Referenced 參考: Himalayan Art Resource item no.2223 and 2224 The alliance with the Mongols gave the Gelug tradition considerable
strength in Tibet, allowing them to oppose the kings of Tsang, who
Provenance 來源: The Jongen-Schleiper Collection of Fine Thangkas were traditionally supporters of the Kagyu and Shakya orders, and
driving the Tsang kings out of Kyisho and Nedong in 1617.
At the lower section of the painting of the Fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten
Gyatso (1589-1617), is the following inscription: The painting of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Lobzang Gyatso (1617-1682),
has an inscription on the reverse:
དསུ ་དགའྲ ི་དབང་པའོ ་ི མཐ་ུ སོྟབས་དྲག་སོརྦྱ ་གསིྱ ། ནག་ཕྱགོ ས་བདུད་འཇོམས་ལ་ཐོགས་མདེ ་ཅིང་།
ཡ་ེ ཤེས་མགནོ ་པའོ ི་འཕནྲི ་ལས་ཀནུ ་བསྒྲབུ ས་པའ།ི བདེ་ཆེན་ཆོས་ཀི་ྱ རྒྱལ་པོ་གསལོ ་བ་འདེབས། མཚོ་སྱེསྐ ་རྡོ་རའྗེ ི་འཕནྲི ་ལས་རོལ་པའ་ི བྱིན། ངག་ག་ི དབང་ཕྱུག་གུབྲ ་པའི་བློ་གསོྲ ་ཅན། རབླ ས་ཆེན་བཟང་པའོ ་ི སྱྤདོ ་པས་འག་ོྲ ཀུན་འདནྲེ ། འདུལ་
འསོ ་རྒྱ་མཚོའ་ི མགནོ ་དསེ ་རྟག་ཏུ་སྱངོྐ ས།
‘By the power and strength of the wrathful practice of [Vajrabhairava]
(dus dgra wang po), ‘By the blessing of activities of the Lake-born Vajra,
Subduing the evil forces of Mara without difficulty, With intelligence attainment of Master of speech,
Accomplishing all the activities of wisdom Mahakala, Leading all beings by magnificent moral conduct,
To Dechen Chokyi Gyalpo I pray.’ Ocean-like lord constantly protect those tame-able ones.’
Translation by J.Watt & K.Gellek, February 2017 Translation by J.Watt & K.Gellek, February 2017
The Fifth Dalai Lama is depicted seated facing to his left looking at
the Potala Palace that was constructed under his leadership. In his
right hand he holds a flowering lotus stem, while his left hand holds
a dharmachakra (‘Wheel of Dharma’). In the top left corner is Naro
Dakini in red. On the bottom left is an Indian adept or siddha. Floating
above the clouds in the top right corner is a Gelug hierarch, while the
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara floats in the sky issuing rays of rainbow-
coloured light.
A similar painting of the Fifth Dalai Lama, early 19th century, was sold
in our New York rooms on 14 March 2016, lot 48.
23 (Fifth Dalai Lama, reverse detail)
66 | BONHAMS
