Footnotes

扎什倫布 藏中 十八世紀 智行佛母唐卡

From the slender-necked and four-armed Amitayus in the painting's top left corner, to the prominent multi-colored persimmons obscuring the sky, the tight blue-and-green rockwork within landscape below, the physiognomy of the severed heads hung from the central goddesses' neck, and the First Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen (1570-1662) appearing in the top right corner, this thangka is pure example of scroll painting from Tashi Lhunpo monastery in the 18th century. Though the seat of the Panchen Lama, who is second in command within the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism, Tashi Lhunpo was the preeminent Gelug monastery at this time, establishing close ties with the Qing imperial court during the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722). This painting's style matches a series gifted to the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-96) by the Third Panchen Lama, Lobzang Palden Yeshe (1738-80), who was the emperor's spiritual preceptor. Now housed in the Palace Museum, Beijing, a number of them are published on Himalayan Art Resources within set no. 3794.

The intense visual feast of this painting depicts an oversized central figure of Kurukulla in a semi-wrathful appearance, red in color and baring fangs. With her primary hands, she draws a floral bow and arrow aimed to her left. With her second pair of hands she wields a lasso and hook, again floral in makeup. Surrounded by the jagged flames of 'pristine awareness', she raises her right in a dancing posture while the left presses on the red and gold disc symbolizing the sun, which the asura crushed underneath her threatened to devour. Takkiraja and his consort join her in the bottom center, flanked by skull offerings of the five senses and effervescent nectar on the left and a corpse being stripped by a vulture on the right. Despite this grim imagery, Kurukulla's presence gives rise to a great flowering of plump fruits.

Kurukulla is one of the most alluring deities in Buddhist art. Thought to have initially been a tribal goddess originating from Udayana in Swat Valley, she is the goddess of enchantment, magnetism, and witchcraft. Liturgically, she is invoked to subdue those evil spirits, demons, and humans who work against the welfare of humanity and its spiritual evolution, while in popular practice, she is called on for the success of a new enterprise, to win court cases, or to bewitch others. In this regard, the Arya Tara Kurukulla Kalpa, outlines magical rites for enchanting and subjugating others, curing frigidity and impotence, and acquiring wealth and power.

Exhibited:
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, December 2018 - May 2020

Provenance:
Dr. Ernest Herzfeld
Private Collection, USA
Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2012, lot 1108
Private New York Collection