Page 196 - Bonhams Asian Art London November 5, 2020

The vibrant composition is decorated with auspicious figures arranged Changkya Rolpa’i Dorje (1717-1786) was raised in the Qing court and
around a lotus blossom within the walls of a palace, all above a large became the most important Buddhist figure in Beijing. At a young age,
lotus with flaming border with flying garland-bearers, all set within he was recognized as the next incarnation of the Changkya lineage,
a mountainous landscape interspersed with flowing streams and which was based at the Gönlung Jampa Ling, a Gelugpa monastery
vaporous ruyi clouds, silk mount. in Amdo. The monastery was eventually destroyed by the Qing forces
when some of its residents rose up in rebellion against the Chinese
Inscribed on the silk ribbon: court in 1724. Changkya was however invited back to Beijing, where
ཉེར་དགུ་ ‘Twenty-one’ he was raised within the court and instructed in Buddhist studies
alongside Yongzheng’s son, Prince Hungli, who later became the
Inscribed along the top edge and on top of silk ribbon: Qianlong emperor.
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཕྲེང་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཉེར་དགུ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཁྲག་འཐུང་ལྷ་ཉེར་གཅིག་གི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར།།
‘Twenty-one deity mandala of Dorjé Trantung (Vajraheruka), the 29th In 1734, when Rolpa’i Dorje returned to Tibet to accompany the 7th
mandala of the Vajrāvalī’. Dalai Lama from his visit to Beijing, he travelled to Shigatse, where
he studied under the Panchen Lama and was ordained as a full
Inscribed along the lower edge: monk. Following the death of the Yongzheng emperor in 1736, he
ལྕང་སྐྱ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཐིག་སོགས་ཀྱི་བཀོད་པ་གནང་ནས་རྒྱལ་སྲས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ཡུན་ཐོའུ་གྱི་ལྷག་བསཾས་དག་པས་ཕུལ་པའི་རྡོར་ཕྲེངགི་ returned to Beijing where he was put in charge of the Buddhist affairs
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ ཉེར་དགུ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཁྲག་འཐུང་ལྷ་ཉེར་གཅིག་གི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར།། in the capital. There he served as religious preceptor to the Qianlong
‘Twenty-one deity mandala of Dorjé Trantung (Vajraheruka), the 29th emperor. Throughout his career, Rolpa’i Dorje exerted great influence
mandala of the Vajrāvalī offered by the twelfth prince Yuntou gyi on the relations between the Qing court and the Buddhist institutions
Lhaksem Dakpa (Yintao) after a design bestowed by the Changkya in Tibet. He advised Qianlong to recognise the Dalai Lama as the
Trülku Rinpoché. spiritual and secular leader of Tibet. This means led to the promotion
of the Gelug sect over other Tibetan Buddhist schools. Rolpa’i Dorje
This remarkable painting would have been part of a larger set of had an active role in recognizing the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama
probably forty-four paintings depicting the mandalas of the Vajravali in 1757, following the death of the seventh leader. He also encouraged
compendium. In place of the deities are depictions of the main the Panchen Lama to visit Beijing for an official audience with Qianlong
attributes of Vajraheruka, the deity to when this work was dedicated. in 1779. For the occasion, a set of paintings depicting the previous
Compositions such as the present example are known as ‘symbol incarnations of the Panchen Lama were commissioned.
mandalas’ and are equal in meaning and function to mandala paintings
that depict all of the figures described in the elaborate Tantric ritual. The presence of Rolpa’i Dorje in Beijing led to a great development
of Tibetan Buddhism within the capital. In 1741, the religious leader
According to the inscription located at the bottom of the painting, the began to translate the Sutra on Iconometry (in Chinese, called
present mandala was commissioned by the twelfth prince Yintao. Zaoxiang liangdu), together with Gonpokyab, a Mongolian monk.
Laying out the methods for designing Buddhist images, the text
According to contemporary records, Yintao spent his adolescence became the standard for religious artists working in the Imperial court.
between Beijing and the various retreats and palaces around
the capital. In the later phase of his life, he presided over various A very similar 18th century mandala, inscribed with very similar
ceremonial and bureaucratic offices. When the issue arose of who inscriptions as the present lot and believed to originate from the same
would be the successor of his father and infighting took place within set as the present example, was sold at Christie’s New York, 16
the Imperial household, Yintao and several of his brothers were September 2014, lot 288.
demoted when Prince Yinzhen rose to become the Yongzheng
emperor (r. 1722-1735). Following Yongzheng’s death, Yintao regained
some of his previous titles under the rule of his nephew, the Qianlong
emperor (r. 1735-1796). See P.Berger, Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist
Art and Political Authority in Qing China, Honolulu, 2003, pp.186-187.

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