scenes from the Avadana Kalpalata

paint and gold on textile
Eastern Tibet, early 19th cent.
size: 75 x 56,5 cm.

This is a thangka from the famous series, originally designed and painted by the Tai Situ Panchen, Chökyi Jungne (1700-1774), and depicting the 108 Deeds of self-sacrifice of the Buddha during his previous lives, and written down by the Kashmiri poet Kshemendra, in 1052. The design is a very personal mixture of beautiful Chinese-styled landscapes and small figures in Indian/Nepalese-styled clothes. This thangka is the last in the series of 21.

other thangkas from different series are published in:
Blanche Christine Olschak and Geshe Thupten Wabgyal, Mystic Art of Ancient Tibet, Boston, 1987, .p. 72-73.
David P. Jackson, A History of Tibetan Painting, Vienna, 1996, p. 265, 269-270.
David P. Jackson, `Some Karma Kagyu Paintings in the Rubin Collection’, in: Worlds of Transformation, Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, New York, 1999, p. 112-116.
Hugo Kreijger, Tibetan Painting, The Jucker Collection, Boston, 2001, p. 34-37, nr. 4.

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