Page 93 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art March 2016 New York

A Group of Eight Avadana
Thangkas from the Collection of
Lobsang P. Lhalungpa

59
A GROUP OF EIGHT THANGKAS FROM AN
AVADANAKALPALATA SET
Central Tibet, 18th century
Distemper on cloth; the reverse of each inscribed in Tibetan with
instructions for display in the top right corner, repeated ‘om, ah,
hum’ invocations, a stupa diagram housing mantras and prayers;
each bordered with original gold-brocaded silks.
Image: 34 1/2 x 22 in. (87.7 x 56 cm) each

With silks: 59 x 35 in. (150 x 89 cm) each

$200,000 - 300,000

西藏中部 十八世紀 譬喻集唐卡組畫之八幅

These enthusiastic, often humorous, compositions survive in
impeccable condition with their vibrant colors intact. Their gold-
brocaded silk mounts would have been a gift to the monastery from
the Chinese Imperial court. Each has its reverse imbued with a large
diagram of a stupa that frames a series of Sanskrit mantras (e.g.
‘om bhrum svaha’) ending with a four-line prayer translated:

‘Patience for hardships is noble patience,
[Leading to] supreme liberation, the Buddha has said.
With respect to others,
Monks should do no harm or cause distress.’

All eight derive from a single set of thirty-one depicting the
Bodhisattvavadanakalpalata – 108 stories of Buddha’s previous
lives. In the Lhasa court style, they derive from the same woodblock
prints and are near identical to two complete sets, one held in
the Palace Museum Beijing (Zangchuan Fojiao Tangka-Gugong
Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji, Hong Kong, 2006, pp.
64-95, nos. 56-86), and the other published in Giuseppe Tucci’s
founding work, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Rome, 1949, pl. 102-29.

Each painting houses three or four of these stories about Lobsang P. Lhalungpa was born in Lhasa, Tibet. A talented monk-
Buddha’s great wisdom and compassion throughout his many official, he was sent to India in 1947 to oversee the instruction
lives. Included is no. 32, The Trials of Kalyanakari, about a prince of young Tibetans at a prominent school in Darjeeling. In 1956,
rewarded for his forgiveness after his brother blinded, robbed, the External Services of All India Radio recruited him to establish
and left him for dead after they stumbled upon the mythical the first Tibetan-language program from New Delhi, which he
Island of Gems. And no. 67, Sangharakshita’s Spiritual Journey, managed until 1971.
about a monk who, having learnt the dharma in the underwater
palace of the naga-kings, taught it to five-hundred sages at once; Lhalungpha devoted his life to the preservation of Tibetan language
became an arhat; and flew them all to visit the Buddha. For a and culture. His publications manifest his humanitarian spirit. In 1948,
translation of the each story contained within these thangkas, see he co-authored, Textbook of Colloquial Tibetan with Tibetologist
Black (trans.), Leaves of the Heaven Tree, Berkeley, 1997. George Roerich, the son of famed Russian painter Nicholas Roerich.
He translated The Life of Milarepa (1977) and Mahamudra: The
Referenced Moonlight (1986) into English, and The Life of Mahatma Gandhi into
HAR - himalayanart.org/items/61447-61454 Tibetan (c. 1965). In 1997, he authored Tibet: The Sacred Realm,
Photographs 1880-1950 and contributed to the landmark Art History
Provenance publication, Tibet: Tradition and Change. In his later years, he lived in
Collection of Lobsang P. Lhalungpa (1926-2008) New Mexico, where he was named a Santa Fe Living Treasure.
Acquired in India, 1960s

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