Page 154 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art November 2018

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A RARE THANGKA OF SHRI HERUKA
Eastern Tibet, 18th/19th century
The winged Chemchok Heruka with a blue, white
and red face, each with a wrathful expression
heightened by flaming eyebrows, bulging eyes,
and gaping mouth, in yab-yum with his lighter blue
consort, his large wings stretching out behind him
against the aureole of flames of pristine awareness,
surrounded by a host of retinue figures including
Bardo deities, female gatekeepers, transformation
deities, Brahmini and manifestations of Herukas, all
amidst vaporous clouds, the reverse with a stupa-
form Tibetan inscription behind the central figure
consisting of sanctification and blessings mantras in
Sanskrit and dharanis in Tibetan script.
57cm x 81cm (22 5/8in x 32in); with silk mount:
85.5 x 167.5 cm (33 6/8 x 66in).

£10,000 - 15,000
CNY91,000 - 140,000
西藏東部 十八/十九世紀 彩繪赫魯嘎像唐卡

Provenance:
Navin Kumar, Paris
Fournier Collection, Paris
A European private collection, acquired from the
above in the 1980’s

來源：
巴黎古董商Navin Kumar
巴黎Fournier收藏
歐洲私人收藏，於1980年代購自上者
For the inscription on the reverse and its translation
please see full footnote on Bonhams website.

Heruka, or ‘blood drinker’, usually refers to male
wrathful deities who adopt a fierce countenance
to benefit sentient beings. In this composition, the
principal deity and his retinue figures relate to the
transmigratory visions in the intermediary stage
between death and rebirth known as Bardo, as
described in the ‘Bardo Thodol’ (‘Tibetan Book
of the Dead’), which quotes: ‘The crucial point
is indeed that those who have meditated on the
formal description of these Herukakaya (‘bodies
of Heruka’), and also made offerings and praise to
them, or, at the very least, have simply seen their
painted and sculpted images, may recognise the
forms that arise here and attain moksha (liberation).’

The fierce and wrathful deities surrounding the
central figure represent the visions produced by
the psyche of the deceased during the stage of
the fifth bardo (known as Chonyi bardo), which
succeeds immediately after the moment of death
and which precedes the sixth and last stage of
bardo when the karmic energy of the individual is
transmigrated to a new beginning. The succession
of visions and progression to the various stages is
dependent on the degree of mental perfection and
the karmic nature of the deceased. The bells held
by several deities in this current thangka symbolises
the void, shunyata, the essence of all reality,
dharmata. The treatment of the flames and the
facial features of the deities of the present thangka
compare with a thangka of Shri Heruka, 19th
century, from the Rubin Museum of Art, New York
(acc.no.F1997.12.2), illustrated in Himalayan Art
Resources, no.194. Also compare with a thangka of
Shri Heruka, 19th century, from the Rubin Museum
of Art, New York (acc.no. P1998.15.1), illustrated in
Himalayan Art Resources, no.702.

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