PROBABLY WESTERN TIBET, 15TH-16TH CENTURY

This rare painting depicts the tathagata, Amitabha, seated in the Sukhavati, otherwise known as the Western Pure Land. Worship of Pure Land and of Amitabha in the Sukhavati in particular, was extremely popular across the Himalayas and East Asia from an early date. In the present painting, Amitabha is seated on a throne over a lotus blossom emerging from the waters below. At the top of the painting, the primordial buddha Vajradhara is seated alongside the five tathagata or dhyani buddhas, and the rest of the composition is filled with a multitude of bodhisattvas, retinue figures, and lamas, including six lamas facing one another and presumably passing along Buddhist teachings. Palaces sit in each corner of the painting.
Certain characteristics of the style point to a Western Tibet origin for the painting: the triangular swatches of fabric at the front of the throne base, the stylized and exaggerated folds of the drapery of the central figure, and the lettuce-like petals of the lotus base are all typical of Western Tibetan paintings, particularly from the area of Guge. Compare with a painting of Amitabha in the Sukhavati in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art (acc. no. 84.265), illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 86908.