Footnotes

博東初祖 博東班禪卻列南嘉銅像
西藏 十五/十六世紀

Tibetan inscription
༄༅།། ན་མོ་འགུ་རུ། །རྒྱུད་མཛིན་འགོན་པོ་དཔལ་མཛིན་གྱི། །ཐུགས་དགོངས་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་གྱུར་ནས། །འགྲོའ་མང་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་ལ་འགོད། །དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མའི་ཞབས་ལ་འདུད། །དཔན་ཆེན་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ལ་ན་མོ།།

Transliteration
[1] § | | na mo [g]uru | | rgyud [']dzin [m]gon po dpal [']dzin gyi[s] | | thugs dgongs yongs su rdzogs gyur nas | | 'gr[o] mang thar pa'i lam la 'god | | dpal ldan bla ma'i zhabs la 'dud | | [paṇ] chen phyogs las rnam rgyal la na mo |
[ ] emendation

Translation
Homage to the guru.
The lineage holder Gonpo Peldzin,¹
Having fully perfected the intention,
Established many migratory beings on the path to liberation.
I bow down at the feet of the glorious lama.
Homage to Panchen Chogle Namgyel.

¹Assuming that mgon po dpal 'dzin expresses an epithet or name. It is unknown whether Bodong Panchen Chogle Namgyel (bo dong paṇ chen phyogs las rnam rgyal) was also referred to as Gonpo Peldzin.

Himalayan Art Resources item no.16856
treasuryoflives.org biography no.P2627
BDRC Resource ID P2627

The venerated founder of the Bodong Order of Tibetan Buddhism, Bodong Panchen Chogle Namgyal (1375-1451), is remembered as one of Tibet's most erudite masters. He was born in Yigu region, in South West Tibet, and received the honorific sobriquet, "Young Pandita", as a precocious young adult. Namgyal was renowned for his debating skills, with which he triumphed over many famous scholars of his time. He was the principal teacher of important historic figures, such as Khedrubje Gelek Pelzang (1385-1438), the pivotal early leader of the Gelug order, and Chokyi Dronma (1422- 1455/67), a renunciate princess who became the first abbot of the only Tibetan monastery that traditionally elects a woman as abbot.

This portrait depicts a young Namgyal seated in a commanding, upright pose with his left hand resting on his lap and his right reaching towards the ground, mirroring the posture of the Buddha. The facial features are even and clearly marked, with a high brow and determined chin. He wears a tufted pandita hat and a sumptuous meditation cloak decorated with free-form intertwined vegetal and floral motifs. The hem of the cloak is finely chased with a large rice grain design. Every inch of his garments is patterned, which is typical for Bodong order portraits (cf. HAR set no.2335). Another portrait of Chogle Namgyal, formerly in the Goldman Collection, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 21 March 2002, lot 114.

Provenance
Lempertz, Koln, 12 December 2008, lot 185