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Lot 58
SENGE DADONG - 'THE GURU WITH THE LION'S VOICE'
Estimated Value:
2.500 € - 3.500 €
Schätzpreis:
10.000 €
Description:
Tibet, 18th c.51 x 34 / 102 x 74 cm
Guru Senge Dadog - iconographically of blue body colour - is of stocky and muscular build, yet most fearsome. One thinks one can hear his lion's voice. His fanged mouth is open, his tongue curled back. Flames spring from his face, and his eyes are wide with rage. On his head he wears the fivefold crown of wisdom of the Tathagatas. Senge Dadog's right hand is raised threateningly, wielding the diamond sceptre, the vajra. This is his diamond weapon because it can cut through, split, dissolve all illusions, all delusions. His left hand is directed forward to ward off demons and disturbing forces. His aggression against anything harmful to the Dharma is impressive through his powerful lunge, with whose feet he tramples down hindering spirits. Poisonous snakes entwine his limbs. On his head he wears half a vajra, which identifies him as a Dharma protector. As an indication of his power, he wears a lion skin and a tiger skin wrapped around his body. A garland of (altogether 51) freshly severed human heads, lined up on intestines, wraps around his hips. These represent obstacles that must be overcome: Attachment or grasping, anger (including hatred), pride and arrogance, ignorance or delusion, hindering doubts and hindering views. Anger, resentment, malice, envy and jealousy, cruelty; avarice, exaggerated self-esteem, agitation and fright, concealment of one's vices and mental dullness; lack of confidence, sloth, heedlessness and lack of attention; conceit, deceit, shamelessness, lack of regard for others, lack of conscientiousness and absent-mindedness. Looking at all this makes the constructive anger of the protector Senge Dadog understandable. However, the anger is directed only against the harmful energies, out of compassion, like a mother who, out of love, angrily admonishes her child to develop mindfulness and devotion, for her own benefit. He is assisted by his wisdom partner, who approaches him with a similar outgoing energy.
The base of the protector is a sun lotus resting on a rock massif, surrounded by the primeval ocean. The great guru, in the form of Senge Dadog, is accompanied by four of his twenty-five disciples, who are distributed among the remaining thangkas. They are depicted in their own poses, from top to bottom: lHa lung dPal gyi rdo rje, penetrating a rock (Fig. 7-328/330); rMa Rin Chen mchog, consuming a piece of rock (Fig. 7-324); Lang dPal gyi seng ge with bell and vajra, before him gods and demons he has subdued (Fig. 7-239); 'O dran dPal gyi dbang phyug, swimming like a fish (Fig.7-319-21 ). Above all the apparitions, amidst rainbow rays, is enthroned Manjushrimitra (Fig. 7-110/111), an Indian sage, holding a mace and a rope in his hands. To his left is a water container according to Indian tradition. Cotton fabric with vermilion grounding (mtshal- thang), gold line drawing, pigments. The deity and partner are executed in gold because of the esteem in which they are held, brocade border modern.
From an old and important German private collection, collected between 1950 and 1987, collection no. T 69 - Minor wear and very minor damages due to age
