YUNGDRUNG TONGDROL - PADMASAMBHAVA

Estimated Value:

600 € - 1.000 €

Result:

3.108 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

Dolpo/Nepal, late 17th/ early 18th c.
63 x 50 cm, R.
Thangka from the Bon tradition, depicting Yungdrung Tongdrol - as Guru Padmasambhava, or the "Precious Guru", as the great Indian scholar and magician is also called by the Tibetan Buddhist schools. He is considered the second Buddha of our present age in the tantric tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Yungdrung Tongdrol is revered as the second son of Drenpa Namka (ca. 8th century) by the Bon-po. Drenpa Namka is considered one of the most important and oldest historically attested patriarchs of the Bon tradition. He was a prominent participant in the historical conflict between the Bon tradition and Buddhism in the 8th century. In this Bon painting, Padmasambhava is depicted largely according to Buddhist iconography, except for a few different features: He wears, among other things, a blue undergarment, a green cloak, a red scholar's cloak with floral decoration and a red cape trimmed with tiger skin. His traditional hat is depicted in the style of the bon-pos. In his left hand Yungdrung Tongdrol / Padmasambhava holds the skull bowl, and in deviation from the Buddhist representation, on the right his ritual three-pointed staff (khatvanga) with the three skulls - symbolising the three times, but below the three heads, instead of the Buddhist double vajra, according to the Bon tradition, there is the left-handed swastika. He is seated on an altar-like lotus throne, above a moon disc, in front of a broad polychrome aureole. His head is surrounded by a green, rainbow-fringed gloriole. The guru is accompanied by his two disciples in the form of a white and a red dakini. Both are depicted naked in a dancing pose, wearing only bone jewellery and the khatvanga, each also with the swatika symbol, instead of the double vajra. Below the guru, in a yellow square, appear four dakinis, in the colours of the cardinal points: White, Blue, Yellow, Red and Green. Accompanying Yungdrung Tongdrol /Padmasambhva are his twenty-five disciples, who can be identified from the literature cited above. They appear to follow the mode of representation of the Nyingma tradition of Padmasambhava. Appearing in the top row of patron deities are: Tönpa Shenrap, of iconographic blue colour. He has his hands in the gesture of meditation, and at the same time a swastika sceptre. To his left, his partner is depicted in red colour. To the left follows: Trowo Tsochog Kagying, of blue body colour, six-armed, with his partner in iconographic red body colour. Then follows: Magyu Sanchog Tartug, blue, 16-armed, yab-yum. In the left corner again Tönpa Shenrap (?), in union with his partner. To the right appears a dagger deity, six-armed with three faces, in yab-yum. Then to the right follows: M e r i, an 18-armed deity, with several faces, and animal heads, of yellow colour, in union with partner. In the right corner sits a yogi with kapala in his left hand. He is of dark body colour. This thangka is iconographically interesting and rare in its conception! Tempera on cotton fabric; reverse inscription mantra in Sanskrit brocade border, reverse: Inscription with a mantra in Sanskrit.
Old South German private collection, according to tradition acquired from Schoettle Ostasiatica in the 1970s
On the subject: Samten G. Karmay, A General Introduction to the History and Doctrines of Bon; Memoires of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko; Tokyo, 1975, p. 183 f Christoph Baumer,, BÖN - Die lebendige Urreligion Tibets; Graz, 1999, p.172 f S. H. Ribbach, Vier Bilder des Padmasambhva und seiner Gefolgschaft; Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg; 1917, III, Die Mitarbeiter und Schüler des Padmasambhva; Adelheid Herrmann-Pfandt; The Copper-coloured Palace; Iconography of the rNingma School of Tibetan Buddhism; Agam Kala Kashan, Delhi, 2018; Vol III; 7. 8. Per Kvaerne, The Bon Religion of Tibet - The Iconography of a Living Tradition; London, 1995 - Wear, minor damages due to age, framed under glass

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