Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

A thangka with scenes from the Bodhisattva Avandanakalpalata Eastern Tibet, circa 1800 image 1
A thangka with scenes from the Bodhisattva Avandanakalpalata Eastern Tibet, circa 1800 image 2
A thangka with scenes from the Bodhisattva Avandanakalpalata Eastern Tibet, circa 1800 image 3
A thangka with scenes from the Bodhisattva Avandanakalpalata Eastern Tibet, circa 1800 image 4
A thangka with scenes from the Bodhisattva Avandanakalpalata Eastern Tibet, circa 1800 image 5
Lot 34

A thangka with scenes from the Bodhisattva Avandanakalpalata
Eastern Tibet, circa 1800

17 March 2014, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$17,500 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

A thangka with scenes from the Bodhisattva Avandanakalpalata

Eastern Tibet, circa 1800
Distemper on cloth; an open landscape with finely detailed diminutive figures and structure, depicting the Awakening of King Prabhasa, The Generosity of King Srisena, and King Manicuda's Perfection of Giving.
Image: 30 1/2 x 22 in. (77.4 x 55.8 cm)

Footnotes

There are numerous ways in which the Avadana teaching stories have been illustrated. In the New Menri style of painting, beginning in the 17th century, there are at least two methods of composition based on emphasizing different characters and meanings from the 108 avadana stories. The painting style emphasized at Palpung Monastery, founded by Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne in the mid 18th century, follows in the Kham Style (khan dri) and places the narrative stories on a much more open landscape compared with the Central Tibetan New Menri style of painting.

This is painting number 2 in Avadana series containing stories numbering 1 through 3, from a set of 23 compositions and 108 stories. This particular composition is very finely done. Each of the three stories are identified by a Tibetan inscription along with a number reference.

The second story is related to the generosity of King Srisena whose actions attracted the attention of the god Indra. Indra, wishing to test Srisena, took the form of a Brahman who lost the lower half of his body after being devoured by a tiger, and asked Srisena for half of his own body to replace it. Srisena immediately agreed, as he did not wish to see the Brahman suffer and ordered for his body to cut in half, as shown in the thangka. Indra acknowledged the remarkable selfless act by restoring both of their bodies to whole.

Other thangkas from this series are in the Newark Museum of Art, see Reynolds, From the Sacred Realm: Treasures of Tibetan Art, New York, 1999, p. 184, pl. 103; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, see Pal, Art of Tibet, Los Angeles, 1990, p. 165, no. P28; Rubin Museum of Art, see Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, New York, 2009, pp. 12 and 27, figs. 1.15 and 2.10, 6.11 (HAR #247 and #65136); and in the Shelley and Donald Rubin Collection featured on the himalayanart.org (HAR #30 and #138).

Jackson notes, "In 1733 at Palpung, soon after hearing the heartbreaking news of the sudden passing away of both the Twelfth Karmapa and Sharmar lamas (possibly from smallpox), Situ began designing a set of thangkas depicting the 108 stories from Ksemendra's Wish-Granting Vine collecting of versified moral tales (avandana) and themes. He set up a workshoip for executing some thirty thangkas, for which he himself sketched the compositions according to his own imagination and original ideas" (New York, 2009, p. 11).

Published:
HAR #41005 - http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/41005.html

Provenance:
Private Collection, New York

Additional information

Bid now on these items

TÊTE DE BODHISATTVA EN STUC Ancienne région du Gandhara, IIIe-Ve siècle

TÊTE DE BOUDDHA EN SCHISTE Ancienne région du Gandhara, IVe siècle

STATUE DE BOUDDHA EN SCHISTE GRIS Ancienne région du Gandhara, II-IIIe siècle

TÊTE DE BOUDDHA EN STUC Ancienne région du Gandhara, IVe-Ve siècle

PANNEAU EN RELIEF EN SCHISTE GRIS REPRÉSENTANT POSSIBLEMENT LA GRANDE RENONCIATION OU L'INTERPRÉTATION DU RÊVE DE MAYA AU ROI SUDDHODANA Ancienne région du Gandhara, IIe-IIIe siècle

STATUETTE DE DIVINITÉ FÉMININE DEBOUT EN TERRE CUITE Inde, Période Maurya-Sunga, IIe-Ier siècle avant J.C.

STÈLE DE FIGURE DEBOUT TENANT UN ARC ET DES FLÈCHES EN GRÈS ROUGE Inde centrale, Madhya Pradesh, Style Khajuraho, XIe siècle

IMPORTANTE STATUE DE DÉESSE EN BRONZE Inde, Tamil Nadu, époque Vijayanagara, XVI siècle

SANCTUAIRE DE SURYA EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRE Inde, Bengale, époque Pala, Xe siècle

STÈLE DE VISHNU EN PIERRE NOIRE Inde occidentale, Rajasthan ou Gujarat, ca. XIIe-XIIIe siècle

STÈLE EN PIERRE NOIRE REPRÉSENTANT DURGA TUANT LE DÉMON MAHISHA Bangladesh, XIe-XIIe siècle

STATUETTE DE DURGA MAHISHASURAMARDINI EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRE AVEC TRACES DE POLYCHROMIE Inde, province d'Assam, XVIIe siècle

POIGNARD EN ACIER DAMASQUINÉ D'OR, KATAR DJAMADHAR Inde, moghole, Rajasthan, XIXe siècle

CLOCHE RITUELLE EN BRONZE Indonésie, Java, XIe siècle

RELIQUAIRE EN BRONZE Thaïlande, Sukhothai, XIVe-XVe siècle

BUSTE DE BOUDDHA COURONNÉ EN TERRE CUITE Thaïlande, Haripunjaya, XIIIe siècle

GRANDE CLOCHE DE TEMPLE EN BRONZE Datée de 1206 de l'ère birmane, ou 1844

ÉPÉE À POIGNÉE EN ARGENT NIELLO, DHA, ET SON FOURREAU Birmanie, XIXe siècle

STUPA EN ARGENT Thaïlande, époque Ayutthaya, XVIIe siècle

TÊTE DE BOUDDHA EN BRONZE Thaïlande, époque Ayutthaya, XVe-XVIe siècle

STATUETTE DE BOUDDHA MARAVIJAYA COURONNÉ EN BRONZE Nord de la Thaïlande, époque Lan Na, XVIe siècle

STATUE DE BOUDHA EN BRONZE DORÉ Thaïlande, Bangkok, XIXe siècle

STATUE DE VISHNU CHEVALANT GARUDA EN BOIS SCULPTÉ Thaïlande, XIXe siècle

STATUETTE DE MANJUSHRI AVEC SHAKTI EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRE DORÉ Népal, XVIIe siècle