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Lot 98
MILAREPA - TIBET'S GREAT POET AND YOGI
Estimated Value:
600 € - 1.000 €
Schätzpreis:
1.600 €
Description:
Outer Mongolia, 19th c.40 x 24 (78 x 43) cm
Milarepa is known in Tibet, as well as in the West, as one of the most popular saints, and his biography is particularly impressive and touching. The flowering of Buddhism in the 11th and 12th centuries produced in Tibet the most important yogi and poet in one person (1040-1123). His eventful life story and the legends surrounding his person have remained in the consciousness of the Tibetans who deeply venerate him. The "Hundred Thousand Chants" written by him convey to the believers his deep insights and experiences from the teachings of Buddha. As a hermit, and as a miracle-working siddha, who at times fed only on nettles in glacial solitude, became the model of the Tibetan naldjorpas - those who meditate in solitude. Due to the death of his father, the young Mila and his family (mother and sister) became dependent on his paternal relatives, who took away their belongings and made them perform menial tasks. By learning and applying black magic practices, the youth tried to avenge the wrongs committed by his relatives. However, one of his teachers made him aware of his accumulation of bad karma through his negative actions and he was overcome with remorse. This teacher sent him to Marpa Lotsawa, his future teacher. Marpa, in order to purify his karma, put him through severe trials, which he often endured to the point of collapse. After further difficult tasks and tests, and the withholding of the so eagerly hoped for initiations by his master, he was close to despair. The compassion of his master's wife, Dagmema, finally made it possible for him to receive what he longed for, and the favor of his teacher, who, however, only seemed to withhold it from him, since he knew from the beginning that Mila was of an extremely special nature, and that all the severe privations were necessary for the purification of Mila's sins. Milarepa lived to be 84 years old. Together with three other disciples of Marpa, and his own disciples, he was one of the founders of the various branches of the Kagyüd tradition. The small painting shows in the heavenly realm above the clouds, between the sun and the moon, the teacher Marpa, dressed as a layman, accompanied by his teachers Tilopa and Naropa. Milarepa is in his meditation cave, surrounded by glacial mountains. His upper body is bare, only a meditation band hangs down from his right shoulder. He looks with opened eyes into the distance and holds chracteristically for him, his right hand behind his ear, listening to the instructing voices of the Dakinis. To his left, also in a cave, appears his disciple Rechungpa with the charactristic white pointed cap, and the white robes of a Tummo practitioner (the Inner Fire), and opposite one of his successors Gampopa (1079-1153). At Mila's feet, an exemplary scene occurs: a sweaty deer, a dog chasing the deer, and a hunter who wants to kill the deer, meet in front of Mila's cave. Milarepa reproaches the hunter Gönpo Dorje for his sacrilegious behavior of wanting to hunt and kill the deer and converts him to Buddhism. Further two thangka, Tibet, 19th/20th c.
German private collection, collected in the 1970s and 80s
Wear, traces of age and damages due to age
