TIBET, 19TH CENTURY

Details

A THANGKA OF KARMAPA RANGjung DORJE AND OTHER BUDDHIST LUMINARIES
TIBET, 19TH CENTURY
Finely painted with black lines and wash, depicting a group of robed figures seated around Karmapa Rangjung Dorje against a landscape of mountains and clouds, the figures' headdresses highlighted in red, the foreground with Chinese-style rocks and foliage, with three-line inscription in gold at the bottom, the reverse inscribed in Tibetan 'left painting', with surrounding Chinese brocade, blue, yellow and amber silks
19¾ x 13¾ in. (50.3 x 35.2 cm.)

Lot Essay

This very unusal thangka depicts the third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), the translator Vairochana, Bodong Panchen (1376-1451), Thonmi Sambhota, who devised the Tibetan script and written language, the founder of the Tibetan medical tradition, Yuthog, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, hierarch of the Sakya tradition, Shakya Chogden, an outstanding scholar and practitioner also of the Sakya tradition, Tsuglag chokyi nangwa (Tsugs lag Chos kyi snang ba), otherwise known as Situ Panchen, Longchen rabjam (Klong chen rab 'byams), the great Jo-nang-pa historian and scholar Taranatha, and Kawa Paltseg (Ka ba dpal brtsegs). These figures were all regarded as intellectual and religious luminaries and were made into precursors of the ecumenical non-sectarian (Tib. ri-med) movement in 19th century Tibet.

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