Page 149 - Fine Chinese Art Bonhams London May 2018

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A LARGE BLACK-GROUND THANGKA OF PANJARNATA surrounded by various retinue deities set amidst flames, wispy clouds
MAHAKALA and a mountainous landscape, including Chakrasamvara, Ekajati and
Tibet, 18th/19th century Mahakala Brahmanarupa to the upper register and Yama and Penden
Distemper on cloth, 114cm x 96cm (44 7/8in x 38in). Lhamo to the lower registers.

£15,000 - 20,000 Panjaranata Mahakala is the protector for the Shri Hevajra cycle of
CNY130,000 - 180,000 Tantras. The iconography and rituals are found in the 18th chapter
of the ‘Vajra Panjara Tantra’, an Indian Sanskrit explanatory text. This
西藏 十八/十九世紀 黑底描金大黑天唐卡 form was brought to Tibet by Rinchen Zangpo, the great translator
and propagator of Buddhism in Western Tibet. At first unsuccessful in
Provenance: a European private collection summoning the deity in his meditations, Zangpo travelled to Bodhgaya,
site of enlightenment of the Buddha, and on the third day, ‘He beheld
來源：歐洲私人收藏 the form of Mahakala in the act of trampling upon a dwarf holding a knife
and skull, level with his heart, and a gandhi held central to his hands’.
The deity depicted standing above a corpse on a lotus pedestal,
holding a curved knife, a skullcup filled with blood and the ‘Ghandi of Compare with a related but smaller black-ground thangka of
emanation’ (staff), his wrathful face with three eyes, bared fangs and Panjarnata Mahakala, 18th century, in the Rubin Museum of Art, New
yellow mane flowing upward beyond a gold crown of dry human skulls, York, illustrated by R.Linrothe and M.Rhie, Demonic Divine: Himalayan
wearing elaborate gold jewellery and a string of severed heads, art and Beyong, Chicago, 2004, p.5, fig.1.3.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. FINE CHINESE ART | 141