Page 72 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Thangka Collection

This thangka depicts a vision of the tree
which Shakyamuni miraculously grew from
a toothpick at Shravasti as a tree of wish-
fulfillment, enlightenment, spiritual ancestry, and
life. The tree grows from the ocean of life
and holds up the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and
deities needed for refuge. The reverse of the
thangka has the following inscription:

ཨ་ོཾ ཨཱ༔་ག་ུ རུ་བཛ་ྲ ད་ཱྷ རཱ་ས་ུ མཏ་ི ཀརི ི་ྟ སདི ་ྡིྷ ཧུཾཧུ།ཾ
དང་པརོ ་ར་ྱྒ ཆནེ ་ཐསོ ་པ་མང་ད་ུ བསྩལ། བར་དུ་གཞངུ ་ལུགས་ཐམས་ཅད་གདམས་པར་ཤར།
ཐ་མ་ཉིན་མཚན་ཀནུ ་ཏུ་ཉམས་ས་ུ བླངས། ཀནུ ་ཀྱང་བསནྟ ་པ་རྱྒས་པའ་ི ཆདེ ་ད་ུ བསྔསོ །
ཨ་ཾོ ས་ུ པ་ྲ ཏིཥ་ྛ བ་ཛ་ྲ ཡེ་སཱ་ྭ ཧ།ཱ

‘At first seek large quantities of extensive
teachings,
And next arises the entire teachings as pith
instructions,
Finally practice all day and night,
Dedicate all to the spread of the Buddha’s
teachings.’

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

In the centre sits the Lama Tsongkhapa
(1357-1419), flanked by lotus supporting a
sword and book, signifying his status as a
reincarnation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of
Wisdom. At his heart is Shakyamuni Buddha
from which he is connected to all those
surrounding him, including lineage teachers,
Buddhas and deities. At the right is a Lama
making an offering to the tree before a table
laden with ritual objects. On the left, the
group of the Seven Necessities of a World
Ruler (Chakravartin) comprises of the queen,
minister, general, war elephant, wish-fulfilling
gem, and Wheel of the Dharma. Across the
lower center are dancing dakinis. Snow lions
hold up the large lotus pedestal that supports
the entire assemblage above (referred to
as a ‘divine assembly’ or tsog-shing). The
four Lokapala (Guardian Kings of the Four
Directions), stand in front with the protectors.
Above them are the Arhats and the thirty-five
Buddhas of Confession. On the central axis is
a small medallion enclosing Tsongkhapa and
his two great disciples, Khedrup and Gyaltsab.
For a related thangka of Tsongkhapa and
the Gelugpa refuge tree, 19th century, see
M.M.Rhie, Picturing Enlightenment: Tibetan
Tangkas in the Mead Art Museum at Amherst
College, Amherst, 2013, pp.86-91.

24 Provenance 來源: The Jongen-Schleiper
A THANGKA OF TSONGKHAPA AND THE Collection of Fine Thangkas
GELUGPA REFUGE TREE
Tibet, 19th century Published and Illustrated: A.Neven, Etudes
Distemper on cloth, the reverse with Tibetan D’Art Lamaique et de L’Himalaya, Brussels,
inscription, framed and glazed. 1978, pp.74-75, no.50
79.5 x 53.5 cm (31 3/8 x 21 1/8 in).
出版及著錄： A.Neven著，《Etudes D’Art
西藏十九世紀 宗喀巴上師皈依境圖 Lamaique et de L’Himalaya》，布魯塞
爾，1978年，頁74-75，編號50
Referenced 參考: Himalayan Art Resources
item no.2189

70 | BONHAMS (reverse inscription)