Page 80 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Thangka Collection

26 (reverse inscriptions)
Each painting depicting respectively the First, Fourth and Third
Panchen Lamas (as the Fourth Dalai Lama was still alive when
the triptych was produced, he would be given the more honoured
position of being in the centre of the triptych). The occurrence of three installment of the Fourth and Fifth Dalai Lamas, while the Third
prominent exponents of the Panchen lineage, along with the complete
group of their ten pre-incarnations, all based on an 18th century
woodblock print produced at the Narthang monastery in Central Tibet,
makes this triptych exceedingly rare and important.
Lineage portraits were meant to convey spiritual and secular authority.
Presenting their subjects as both individuals and part of continuing
incarnations, they functioned as occasional focus for meditative
purposes, but also as multi-layered narratives conflating the worlds of
Gods and humans, portraying events distant from and contemporary
to the main subject.
Second only in authority to the Dalai Lama within the Gelug tradition of
Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama lineage was established during
the 16th century by the Fifth Dalai Lama, when he first bestowed
the title of Panchen, or ‘great scholar’, to his own teacher, Lobsang
Choekyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662).
The Panchen Lamas became the abbots of Tashilhunpo monastery,
near Shigatse, in the former Tsang province of Central Tibet.
Considered the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha, they were also
scholars and statesmen. As their popularity increased during the
17th century, ten eminent Indian and Tibetan teachers of the past
were awarded posthumous titles and selected as precursors to the
Panchen lineage, which underscored its legitimacy retrospectively.
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The Panchen Lamas were highly respected by the leaders of the
Dalai lineage and played a crucial role in determining the latter’s
reincarnated successors. The First Panchen Lama supported the
Panchen Lama, himself installed by the Seventh Dalai Lama,
recognised the Eight Dalai Lama, who later identified the Fourth
Panchen Lama.
The Third Panchen Lama was also highly revered by the Qianlong
emperor, with whom he forged a strong alliance with. Several records
describe the Lama’s visit to China in 1780 to partake in the emperor’s
70th birthday celebrations. For the occasion, the Qianlong emperor
had the Xumifushou Temple built near the Imperial Summer residence
in Chengde, which imitated the features of the Panchen’s monastic
seat in Tibet. He also appointed the lama as his spiritual preceptor,
learned the Tibetan language to converse with his guest and gifted
him with silk, paintings and Buddhist sculptures. In addition, following
the lama’s sudden death in Beijing later in the same year, the Qianlong
emperor established a memorial hall within the residential quarters
of the Forbidden City called the Pavilion for Rain and Flowers (Yuhua
Ge 雨花閣); see R.W.Dunnell, et al., New Qing Imperial History: The
Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde, London, 2004, p.xxii.