A THANGKA DEPICTING AMITABHA IN SUKHAVATI TIBET, 18TH/19TH CENTURY |

the pureland of Sukhavati with Amitabha seated at the centre on a peacock throne, an assembly of monks and deities to the sides, a lotus pond and an Amitayus temple complex below, an elaborate canopy protecting the Buddha, and auspicious emblems raining from blue sky above Himalayan Art Resources item no. 18369.

Very good overall condition. No restoration. Minor losses and creasing throughout. Covered overall with specs of organic waste.
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The thangka belongs to a group of paintings associated with Trehor Namkha Gyan, known as Lankajie, a renowned artist working in Kham in the eighteenth century, see Jeff Watt, Himalayan Art Resources, Kandze Valley Painting Style and Trehor Namka Gyan. Based on oral histories Namkha Gyan worked for Gelug establishments in the Kangdze region, as well as the Ngorpa Sakya monastery of nearby Dongtog. He was thought to have been commissioned by the third Panchen lama Palden Yeshe (1738-1780), and a number of his works are now in the imperial collection in Beijing as gifts to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735-1796). Compare a later nineteenth century Amitabha in Sukhavati in the Rubin Museum of Art, see Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A. F. Thurman, Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, New York, 1999 p. 428, cat. no 169.