Lot Essay
Both paintings belong to a series of thirteen depicting each a Panchen Lama. They are considered as an incarnation of Amitayus and resided at the Tashilunpo monastery. They are part and parcel of the dGe.lugs.pa school founded by Tsong.kha.pa. One of his pupils was mKhas.grub.dge.legs.dpal who was abbot of the large monastery Tashilunpo (bkra.shis.lhun.po.) and passed away in 1438. He is officially seen as the first Panchen Lama as a parallel to the Dalaï Lama series. The line onwards from mKhras.grub is undisputed. However there is also a line followed backwards, to the times of Buddha Shakyamuni himself. One of his personal disciples, Subhati or Rab.'byor was considered to be the first of the line. The lives of the thirteen members of this specific series were described and depicted by story-writers, painters and sculptors. In fact the line includes four Indian and nine Tibetan figures of which rTa.nag is the first Tibetan incarnation.