A THANGKA DEPICTING JIGTEN WANGCHUK TIBET, 16TH CENTURY |

the Taglung lama wearing a gold-patterned red robe beneath a yellow cloak and a cap with upturned lappets, hands in dharmachakra mudra, seated in vajraparyankasana on a lion throne, with cushions behind within a halo, set against multi-coloured stylised mountains, surrounded by Kagyu Taglung lineage including, Marpa and Tilopa, Vajradhara, Gonpo Yeshe at centre, Naropa, Milarepa, Gampopa in the upper register, with Sharmapas in the register to the right, with Khardrung Sonam Tashi Pelzangpo in the lower register flanked by Tsokyedo and Sakyong Tashi Pelzangpo to his left, and Radnakaru and Mengyelpo to his right, the reverse with an inscription in red within a stupa Himalayan Art Resources item no. 18353.

Amy Heller, Tibetan Art: Tracing the Development of Spritual Ideals and Art in Tibet, Milan, 1999, cat. no. 104. David Jackson, Mirror of the Buddha: Early Portraits from Tibet, New York, 2011, p. 131, fig. 4.21.

Jigten Wangchuk (1454-1532) was abbot of the Kagyu Taglung branch monastery of Riwoche in Kham, but is principally renowned as a teacher, and notably for the transmission of the Kalachakra to Eighth Gyalwa Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje (1507-1554), see Amy Heller, Tibetan Art: Tracing the Development of Spiritual Ideals and Art in Tibet, Milan, 1999, p. 196. The format of the painting, with the large central enthroned image of the master against a background of stylised multi-coloured mountain staves, and surrounded by Taglung lineage, is based on the Taglung portraits of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, see Jane Casey Singer, ‘Taklung Painting’ in Jane Casey Singer and Philip Denwood, eds, Tibetan Art: Towards a Definition of Style, London, 1997, pp. 52-67: the dates of Jigten Wangchuk preclude an attribution of the painting earlier than mid-sixteenth century. Heller suggests this thangka, together with the portrait of Palden Rinchen in the following lot, may have been done in the traditional style to accompany an existing series of portraits from the earlier period, Heller, op. cit.

The Tibetan inscription at verso can be translated as follows:

Praises at the feet of 'igten Wangchuk, he who fully liberates the followers of the profound tantric path and who upholds the doctrines of tantric realization in the Land of Snows. We pray for the benediction completely liberating all sentient beings. At the summit of the powerful mountain where merits and wisdom unite, born of the precious tree of paradise-giving knowledge of the profound path, its branches spreading full of leaves of the multitude of perfect ritual acts, our praise to you, hightest among men.

Born from the strength of pure merit, the glory of your name covers the ten directions. We venerate the body of the lama, whose body is the great accumulation of good qualities. We venerate the speech of the lama which is the liberating holy dharma without error, whose sound is the pure unobstructed lion's roar to stifle the heretic wild animals. We venerate the mind of the lama, for the mind's clear light stops the clouds of sudden illusion in the celestial realm of great joy without differentiation.

Spontaneously realizing the increase of knowledge, zealously fulfilling all desires, we venerate you for satisfying all in accordance with the power of the thought of the beings still to be liberated.

Sovereign over immovable time, particularly overcoming strife in the world, we venerate you as the hero victorious in all directions over disharmony.

To you whose very body is the prefection of good qualities of the five sorts of ritual acts, by our prayers and praise to you, we hope that you will reveal yourself as our lama.

You who are the treasure of all virtues, wisdom and merits, make the accumulation like the precious tree of paradise bringing to all beings a rainfall of riches and all happiness and prosperity throughout the phenomenal world. (NB: "Jigten Wangchuk" means "the powerful riches of the phenomenal world", so this is a special way of imploring the lama).

O, incomparable lama, may you accomplish this prayer, abandoning the illusions of the mind, may you be the power of memory guiding all beings. By all the virtuous acts placed here may you reveal yourself in the eastern region Kham near those who remember, the Dharma master and his son. May you obtain the perfect rainbow body of Dharma.