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Lot Essay
The feet at the center of the painting are an actual tracing of Drigung Kyobpa Jigten Gonpo Rinchen Pal (1143-1217), a student of Phagmodrupa, who later founded the Drigung order in 1179. He is depicted at the center in the second row and identified by inscription.
In the Kagyu tradition this type of painting was usually made towards the end of the lama's lifetime and used as a substitute for the lama's physical presence, even to the point where initiates can receive new teachings through visualizations from the painting (a form of guru yoga). Because of the once direct physical contact with the lama, these works were also objects of veneration after his death.
The preservation of this work is remarkable due to the fact that it is on a silk textile ground and intact. Usually these paintings come to be seen as relics and are either folded up - as was the case here - and placed in gau boxes, sewn into monk's robes, or even disseminated in other ways.
Compare this work to a smaller painted thangka published by D. Klimburg-Salter in The Silk Road and the Diamond Path, 1982, pl. 111, with closely corresponding composition and placement of figures, and likely of similar date. Notable early stylistic traits are the convention of painted elephant trunks, as they appear on the reserves in the base, which harkens to a practice in India, as well as the palette and thronebacks that are reminiscent of Pala style manuscripts.
In the Kagyu tradition this type of painting was usually made towards the end of the lama's lifetime and used as a substitute for the lama's physical presence, even to the point where initiates can receive new teachings through visualizations from the painting (a form of guru yoga). Because of the once direct physical contact with the lama, these works were also objects of veneration after his death.
The preservation of this work is remarkable due to the fact that it is on a silk textile ground and intact. Usually these paintings come to be seen as relics and are either folded up - as was the case here - and placed in gau boxes, sewn into monk's robes, or even disseminated in other ways.
Compare this work to a smaller painted thangka published by D. Klimburg-Salter in The Silk Road and the Diamond Path, 1982, pl. 111, with closely corresponding composition and placement of figures, and likely of similar date. Notable early stylistic traits are the convention of painted elephant trunks, as they appear on the reserves in the base, which harkens to a practice in India, as well as the palette and thronebacks that are reminiscent of Pala style manuscripts.