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拍品专文
The unusual dimensions of this painting immediately stand out as something very special. The bright colours, detail and gold accents suggest an early date of creation. However this is not the case. The painting style has become known and identified through other paintings recognised as belonging to the same larger set of compositions along with a number of smaller paintings from the same workshop and master artist. This set of paintings is one of the great artistic treasures of Tibet, Kham Provence, Chamdo region and specifically of Riwoche monastery. There are at least seven paintings known to exist from this set of compositions, although the full set is of an unknown number. Additionally, five or more are known that belong to a smaller, half the size, accompanying set, also from the same workshop and subject matter.
Depicted in this extraordinary painting are thirteen figures. Two teachers are depicted at the top centre of the painting. The first is Padmasambhava circa 8th century. The teacher seated below is unidentified although currently with an illegible inscription. The remaining eleven figures are Buddhist deities belonging to the Nyingma 'Revealed Treasure' tradition of the 15th century teacher named Ratna Lingpa (1403-1479).
The principal central figure, the main subject of the painting is Vajrakila, surrounded by five secondary attendant figures each with a triangular blade-like lower body. Each are differentiated by their colour, green Kilaya, blue Kilaya, blue-black (etc.), yellow and red.
'...the king of wrath, bhagavan Vajrakumara, have a body blue-black [in colour], three faces and six hands, the right face is white, left red, the centre blue. Held with the two pairs of right and left hands are a nine and five pointed vajra, a blazing mass of fire and a trident. The remaining two roll a kila. The body is huge and heavy, with bared fangs, three eyes - round and red, brown hair flowing upward; wearing an elephant hide, human skin, and a tiger skin as a lower garment. Adorned with white, red, green, and black snakes as a crown, necklace and sash; decorating the arms and legs. Five dry skulls adorn the head. Wearing a garland of fifty fresh [heads]; marked with clots of blood, spots of great ash and a smear of grease, adorned with various jewel ornaments. With four legs the right are bent and left extended atop the head of Ishvara - face down, and the breast of Uma, standing in the middle of a massive fire of pristine awareness. The Great Mother of the Wheel, embraced, is blue with one face, two hands, in the right a chakra, left a skull cup of blood to feed the father, possessing a leopard skin as a lower garment, adorned with the five bone ornaments. The head is adorned with five dry skulls, wearing a garland of fifty wet [heads], adorned with snake and jewel ornaments, clots of blood, spots of great ash and a smear of grease. The two legs, right and left, are extended and bent, standing with the left embracing the Father.' (Ngawang Kunga Lodro (1729-1783).
Additional deities unrelated to Vajrakila have been added at the top right and left and along the bottom. At the top on the left side is the deity Mahottara Heruka. On the right side is a black wrathful figure. At the lower right side is a wrathful Vajrapani, blue in colour, holding a vajra scepter upraised. On the right side is the female lion-faced deity Simhamukha. Seated between the two is Vajravidarana, dark green in colour. Each has a name inscription with some legible, others not.
Because of the dimensions of the set of paintings they most certainly were used for personal ritual practice. They have been well cared for and there is little damage on most of the examples that are known.
The reverse of the painting is marked with the outline of a stupa drawn in red ink, enclosing the central field. Within this diagram, the central deity Vajrakumara is consecrated by the vertically arranged seed syllables om ah hum written directly behind his figure and highlighted in red-orange pigment. The same consecration formula is repeated for all other deities on the obverse: each is inscribed with om ah hum in their respective positions across the registers, ensuring that every figure is ritually activated.
The interior of the stupa outline also bears several dedicatory inscriptions. These verses are largely devotional in character, with some explicitly invoking the auspicious merit to be gained from producing such a work. While they reinforce the consecratory function of the painting, they offer no historical details concerning its creation, the circumstances of its commissioning, or the identity of its patron. The final verse, however, clearly identifies the subject of the painting and names the central deity, otherwise left uninscribed. It reads:
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཞོན་ནུའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་བསྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་ལ་མཆོག་ཐུན་མོངས་༢་ཀྱི་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྩལ་དུ་གསོལ།།
“I beseech all the deities of the mandala of the Victorious One, Vajrakummra, to bestow upon the practitioner the supreme and ordinary accomplishments (i.e., siddhi)!”
This combination of the stupa outline, the consecratory syllables, and dedicatory verses links the painting’s iconography to its ritual function. The inscriptions do not merely label but transform the thangka into a fully empowered support (rten) for Vajrakilaya practice in the Ratna Lingpa tradition.
As this thangka, and the larger set of paintings are well known to scholars and historians it is anticipated that in the future more research will reveal a greater understanding of the use and the possibility of identifying an artist.
Depicted in this extraordinary painting are thirteen figures. Two teachers are depicted at the top centre of the painting. The first is Padmasambhava circa 8th century. The teacher seated below is unidentified although currently with an illegible inscription. The remaining eleven figures are Buddhist deities belonging to the Nyingma 'Revealed Treasure' tradition of the 15th century teacher named Ratna Lingpa (1403-1479).
The principal central figure, the main subject of the painting is Vajrakila, surrounded by five secondary attendant figures each with a triangular blade-like lower body. Each are differentiated by their colour, green Kilaya, blue Kilaya, blue-black (etc.), yellow and red.
'...the king of wrath, bhagavan Vajrakumara, have a body blue-black [in colour], three faces and six hands, the right face is white, left red, the centre blue. Held with the two pairs of right and left hands are a nine and five pointed vajra, a blazing mass of fire and a trident. The remaining two roll a kila. The body is huge and heavy, with bared fangs, three eyes - round and red, brown hair flowing upward; wearing an elephant hide, human skin, and a tiger skin as a lower garment. Adorned with white, red, green, and black snakes as a crown, necklace and sash; decorating the arms and legs. Five dry skulls adorn the head. Wearing a garland of fifty fresh [heads]; marked with clots of blood, spots of great ash and a smear of grease, adorned with various jewel ornaments. With four legs the right are bent and left extended atop the head of Ishvara - face down, and the breast of Uma, standing in the middle of a massive fire of pristine awareness. The Great Mother of the Wheel, embraced, is blue with one face, two hands, in the right a chakra, left a skull cup of blood to feed the father, possessing a leopard skin as a lower garment, adorned with the five bone ornaments. The head is adorned with five dry skulls, wearing a garland of fifty wet [heads], adorned with snake and jewel ornaments, clots of blood, spots of great ash and a smear of grease. The two legs, right and left, are extended and bent, standing with the left embracing the Father.' (Ngawang Kunga Lodro (1729-1783).
Additional deities unrelated to Vajrakila have been added at the top right and left and along the bottom. At the top on the left side is the deity Mahottara Heruka. On the right side is a black wrathful figure. At the lower right side is a wrathful Vajrapani, blue in colour, holding a vajra scepter upraised. On the right side is the female lion-faced deity Simhamukha. Seated between the two is Vajravidarana, dark green in colour. Each has a name inscription with some legible, others not.
Because of the dimensions of the set of paintings they most certainly were used for personal ritual practice. They have been well cared for and there is little damage on most of the examples that are known.
The reverse of the painting is marked with the outline of a stupa drawn in red ink, enclosing the central field. Within this diagram, the central deity Vajrakumara is consecrated by the vertically arranged seed syllables om ah hum written directly behind his figure and highlighted in red-orange pigment. The same consecration formula is repeated for all other deities on the obverse: each is inscribed with om ah hum in their respective positions across the registers, ensuring that every figure is ritually activated.
The interior of the stupa outline also bears several dedicatory inscriptions. These verses are largely devotional in character, with some explicitly invoking the auspicious merit to be gained from producing such a work. While they reinforce the consecratory function of the painting, they offer no historical details concerning its creation, the circumstances of its commissioning, or the identity of its patron. The final verse, however, clearly identifies the subject of the painting and names the central deity, otherwise left uninscribed. It reads:
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཞོན་ནུའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་བསྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་ལ་མཆོག་ཐུན་མོངས་༢་ཀྱི་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྩལ་དུ་གསོལ།།
“I beseech all the deities of the mandala of the Victorious One, Vajrakummra, to bestow upon the practitioner the supreme and ordinary accomplishments (i.e., siddhi)!”
This combination of the stupa outline, the consecratory syllables, and dedicatory verses links the painting’s iconography to its ritual function. The inscriptions do not merely label but transform the thangka into a fully empowered support (rten) for Vajrakilaya practice in the Ratna Lingpa tradition.
As this thangka, and the larger set of paintings are well known to scholars and historians it is anticipated that in the future more research will reveal a greater understanding of the use and the possibility of identifying an artist.