A THANGKA DEPICTING TAKLA MEMBAR TIBET, 18TH CENTURY |

the red wrathful deity, with arms outstretched holding a golden chakra in his right hand and a chakra of flaming iron khadga in his left, wearing a flowing scarf and a flayed human skin over the shoulders, a skull crown with flaming hair above, golden earrings and lapis necklace, a flayer tiger skin loincloth tied with a naga, and a garland of severed heads, trampling prostrate figures on a throne with a lion, a horse, an elephant, a dragon and khyung bird beneath flanking a kapala offering, with the tiger-headed protector Tag Dong Chen below flanked by Nying Du Tingnag on the left and Machen Pomra riding a lion on the right, with the four animal-headed Kings of the Directions wearing golden armour to the left and right, and surrounded by lamas, deities, mythical animals and dancing goddesses, with the multi-armed Kunzang Gyalwa Dupa, Bonpo masters and manifestations of Tagla Membar above Himalayan Art Resources item no. 18356.

Amy Heller, Tibetan Art: Tracing the Development of Spritual Ideals and Art in Tibet, Milan, 1999, cat. no. 115

Four historic Bonpo masters are depicted above the fearsome figure of Tagla Membar, including Sherab Gyaltsen (1356-1415) and Namkha Gyaltsen holding books, and Chura Namgyel who is regarded as the master of the terma texts describing the ritual cycle of the deity, see Amy Heller, Tibetan Art: Tracing the Development of Spiritual Ideals and Art in Tibet, Milan, 1999, p. 199. The armoured god Machen Pomra riding the snow lion below is the protector deity of the Amye Machen Mountain in Amdo, ibid., and it may be that the painting was made in this eastern region of Tibet. Pigment analysis revealed the use of Prussian blue, first synthesised in 1704, and while Heller notes similarities with mid-seventeenth century murals at Tashilhunpo the presence of the pigment confirms a later date while suggesting a firm chronology within the eighteenth century, ibid. It is certainly one of the finest Bonpo paintings of the period.