A RARE ASTROLOGICAL HANDSCROLL FOR DETERMING KARMIC FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE DATES

Estimated Value:

1.500 € - 2.500 €

Schätzpreis:

1.500 €

Description:

Tibet, 18th/ 19th c.
230 x 45 cm
This elaborate and highly detailed divination scroll shows in its center a square in the center of which is depicted a stylized turtle, and on its belly is drawn the magic square with the symbols of the nine planets. The Bodhisattva of Wisdom, who manifests as a tortoise, inside the square, appears in his bodisattva form in the left table in the upper right corner. Starting from the magic square, concentrically arranged rows follow with the recurring signs of the Eight Parkhas, the twelve signs of the zodiac, different symbols and characters with different color backgrounds characterizing the elements. The determination of the days of destiny and future events is a highly complicated undertaking and requires extensive knowledge. Desi Sanggye Gyatsho, the regent of the V. Dalai Lama (1617-1685), wrote an extensive work under the title "White Beryl" (Vaidurya dkar-po), which deals for the most part with the contents of the Nag-rtsis (Sinotibetan divination calculations). Major issues of divination include: Economic matters - livestock, trade and related travel; size of the family (number of children); health status, -forecasts; lifespan, death expectation, luck or occurring misfortune, among others. From many components, the karmic conditions are calculated, such as time - composed of past, present and future, the Five Elements, geographical position, etc. The table on the left of the square field is filled with many representations, symbols, signs and text passages. The opposite table, too, is divided into countless fields in which signs and objects appear that are determinant for the prediction of events. Cotton fabric, pigments, ink.
Important German private collection, collected in the 1970s and 80s, mostly acquired at Schoettle Ostasiatica, Stuttgart
Literature: Gyurme Dorjee: Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings. Illuminated manuscripts from The White Beryl of Sangs-rgyas rGya-mtsho with the Moonbeams treatise of Lo-chen Dharmaśrī. John Eskenazi Books, London 2002, ISBN 0-9539941-0-4. Béla Kelényi (ed.) Demons and Protectors, Folk Religion in Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism; Ference Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Art; Budapest, 2003
Wear, traces of age

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