Skip to main content
Lot 114

A Thangka of the Third Panchen Lama
Late 18th/early 19th century

10 November 2016, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £27,500 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

A Thangka of the Third Panchen Lama

Late 18th/early 19th century
The Third Panchen Lama seated atop a cushioned throne wearing a pandita hat and a meditation cloak over his robes, holding a book in his lap and his right hand raised in the gesture of reassurance abhayamudra, directly above him is Buddha, flanked by former incarnations of the Panchen Lama and the multi-armed Vajrabhairava with consort, at the bottom centre is the enlightened protector Shri Devi Magzor Gyalmo with the worldly protectors Dorje Setrap on the left and Chingkarwa on the right. 75cm (29 1/2in) long x 49cm (19 1/4in) wide (2).

Footnotes

十八世紀末/十九世紀初 三世班禪喇嘛唐卡

Provenance: a British private collection

來源:英國私人收藏

Lobsang Palden Yeshe (1738-1780), is known as the Third Panchen Lama to the Tibetans, but as the Sixth to the Chinese, since the fourth Dalai Lama gave the title of 'Panchen Lama' to his teacher, Losang Chogi Gyeltsen only in 1601. His successive reincarnations were thus known to Tibetans as the Second and Third Panchen Lamas. However, the Chinese consider Losang Belden Yeshe to be the Sixth Panchen Lama, as they included his previous rebirths before he was recognised as a reincarnation; see New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde, Oxford, 2004, no.22.

In 1778, the Qianlong Emperor invited Lobsang Palden Yeshe to Beijing to celebrate his 70th birthday. To mark the occasion, the Emperor modelled the construction of Xumi Fushou Temple in Chengde on the Tashilhunpo Monastery in central Tibet. When Palden Yeshe reached Beijing, he gave the Emperor many teachings and instructions and the Emperor appointed him his spiritual preceptor. Following illness he died in Beijing in 1780; see P.Schwieger, The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation, New York, 2015, p.121.

A related Thangka depicting the Third Panchen Lama, in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, dated to 1770-1804, is illustrated by D.Jackson, The Palace of Provenance: Regional Styles in Tibetan Painting, New York, 2013, p.44, fig.3.17.

Compare also with a similar group of nine painted Thangkhas of the Third Panchen Lama, circa 1770, which were sold at Christie's New York on 18 September 2013, lot 256.

Additional information

Bid now on these items