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Source Description

Wearing the robes of a Tibetan Buddhist monk, the individual depicted in this portrait was probably a teacher of the Kadampa order. The painting’s patron, perhaps a disciple of the monk, is seen in the lower left corner, gazing toward the teacher. Sitting before an altar and holding an offering lamp, he too wears monk’s robes but has the long hair of a layman. The four deities to the right of the altar are especially important within the Kadampa tradition: from left to right we see the female Buddha Prajnaparmita ( previously identified as the female bodhisattva White Tara), the male bodhisattva Shadakshari Avalokiteshvara, the goddess-bodhisattva Green Tara, and the wrathful buddha Achala. Seated along the top register are the five celestial buddhas and a four-armed goddess, probably Prajnaparamita (“Perfect Wisdom”), considered the mother of all buddhas and the embodiment of wisdom. Below them, the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, and the blue medicine buddha flank the monk at the center. Framed by multicolored lozenge shapes representing jewels, the portrait was painted in a style first developed in eastern India, home to many sites of Buddhist pilgrimage and birthplace of the eleventh-century master Atisha, whose teachings were foundational to the Kadampa tradition.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
29336
label
Portrait of a Tibetan Monk
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
29336
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Portrait of a Tibetan Monk
description
Wearing the robes of a Tibetan Buddhist monk, the individual depicted in this portrait was probably a teacher of the Kadampa order. The painting’s patron, perhaps a disciple of the monk, is seen in the lower left corner, gazing toward the teacher. Sitting before an altar and holding an offering lamp, he too wears monk’s robes but has the long hair of a layman. The four deities to the right of the altar are especially important within the Kadampa tradition: from left to right we see the female Buddha Prajnaparmita ( previously identified as the female bodhisattva White Tara), the male bodhisattva Shadakshari Avalokiteshvara, the goddess-bodhisattva Green Tara, and the wrathful buddha Achala. Seated along the top register are the five celestial buddhas and a four-armed goddess, probably Prajnaparamita (“Perfect Wisdom”), considered the mother of all buddhas and the embodiment of wisdom. Below them, the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, and the blue medicine buddha flank the monk at the center. Framed by multicolored lozenge shapes representing jewels, the portrait was painted in a style first developed in eastern India, home to many sites of Buddhist pilgrimage and birthplace of the eleventh-century master Atisha, whose teachings were foundational to the Kadampa tradition.
provenance
David Salmon, London; purchased by John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, October 1987; given to Walters Art Museum, 2015.
date
12th century
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
paintings
tangkas
tankas
thangkas
thankas
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
35.2
height
27.4
dimensionsRaw
H: 13 7/8 x W: 10 13/16 in. (35.24 x 27.4 cm)
Source extras
cul
Buddhist
med
tempera on cloth
creator_ids
6868
collection_ids
INT
exhibition_ids
2709
2071
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
21b4cbef471f1fe0
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
c05c74eaed71f46b
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no