A THANGKA DEPICTING MILAREPA AND SCENES FROM HIS LIFE TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY |

the yogin with right hand in varada mudra and the left in dhyana mudra wearing a meditation band across the shoulder beneath a pure white robe, seated in lalitasana on an antelope skin, a red and gold halo behind, a pitaka basket to his right with a kapala above, all within a mountain cave with two principal disciples standing either side, six adepts standing beneath beating damaru in their right hands and evoking the Five Long Life Sisters, Tashi Tseringma riding a snow lion, Miyo Lozangma on a tiger to the left, Ting Gyi Shal Zangma holding a triratna and riding an ass, Tekar Drozangma riding the dragon and Chopen Drinzangma riding a stag, all surrounding red Vajrayogini, with scenes from Milarepa’s life throughout, six yogini flanking two meditational deities in yab-yum in mountains above the cave, Shakyamuni Buddha and Padmasambhava to the left and right above, and all contained within a red and gold cloud border Himalayan Art Resources item no. 18340.

Galerie Koller Zürich, Auktion 79/3, 24/25 Mai 1991, tafel 6, nr. 175.

This rare and important thangka depicts the mystical life of Tibets’s most revered yogin Milarepa (1040-1123). The painting remains one of the earliest known thangkas where episodes of his life story are freely arranged in the landscape around him, together with deities and historical personages; compare a ca. 1500 Western Tibetan example in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art were individual scenes are compartmented around the central image of the yogin, see Pratapaditya Pal, Art of Tibet, Los Angeles, 1983, p. 149, cat. P. 14. Although Milarepa is a progenitor of the Kagyu lineage, he is perceived by Tibetans of all orders as the archetypal yogin and is held in the highest esteem for his heroic quest for knowledge. In his youth he mastered the arts of black magic but became disillusioned by destructive practises and resolved to seek the dharma. His first Buddhist teacher was unable to impart effective instruction and referred him to a man called Marpa from Wheat Valley in Lhodrak.

His trials while apprenticed to Marpa (1012-1096) are legendary. Frustrated by his lack of progress and unable to understand why Marpa seemed to be withholding teachings Milarepa give up and left on several occasions. Finding no satisfaction elsewhere he always returned, and for his persistence he was finally granted the teachings he sought. Milarepa had suffered greatly during his training, yet once enlightened he achieved a sublime perception.