TANGKA REPRÉSENTANT UN MAÎTRE KAGYU

Tibet occidental, vers 1350

Footnotes

藏西 約 1350 年 噶舉上師肖像唐卡

Provenance:
Discovered by Augusto Gansser in an abandoned grotto monastery in the Sibchu Valley, Western Tibet, August 13, 1936.
Collection of Augusto Gansser, Zürich-Küsnacht.
Thence in the family by descent.

Publication:
Arnold Heim and Augusto Gansser, Throne of the Gods: An Account of the First Swiss expedition to the Himalayas, London, 1938/1939, pl. 165.
Lauf, Detlef-Ingo, et al., eds., Katalog zur Ausstellung Tibetische Kunst, Bern, 1969, pl. XIII/73.
Blanche Olschak and Geshe Thupten Wangyal, Mystic Art of Ancient Tibet, 1978, p. 51.
David Jackson, The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting, New York, 2018, p. 128, fig. 6.35.

來源
瑞士地質學家奧古斯都·甘塞舊藏，於1936年8月13日得自西藏西部錫布楚山谷的一座廢棄石窟寺
後經家族流傳至今

出版
Arnold Heim及Augusto Gansser，《Throne of the Gods: An Account of the First Swiss expedition to the Himalayas》，倫敦，1938至1939年，圖版165.
Lauf及Detlef-Ingo等編，《Katalog zur Ausstellung Tibetische Kunst》，伯恩，1969年，圖版XIII/73.
Blanche Olschak及Geshe Thupten Wangyal，《Mystic Art of Ancient Tibet》，1978 年， 頁51.
David Jackson，《The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting》，紐約，2018年，頁128，圖6.35.

The discoverer of this portrait thangka, Augusto Gansser (October 1910–January 2012), was a Swiss explorer and eminent scholar in the field of Himalayan geology. During a solo expedition to Tibet on August 13th, 1936, in the Sibchu Valley in Ngari, West Tibet, Gansser happened upon a cliffside monastery known as the Pangtha (Pangdrapuk) cave grottoes, where he found in one of its hundreds of caves this very painting. (Neumann and Neumann, 'The Wall Paintings of Pang Gra Phug: Augusto Gansser's Cave,' in Orientations, June 2011.)

This early thangka likely illustrates a highly esteemed lama from the Kagyu order. The assembly comprises a lineage of mahasiddas, lamas, and wrathful deities, the majority of which depict four-armed goddesses belonging to the retinue of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi. The treatment of the central figure's heavy eyelids and the flowers gently tumbling within the blue background reflect the northeastern Indian traditions that inspired Tibetan artists between the 12th to 14th centuries. The chocolate-brown border framing the edges also reveals the painting's origins in West Tibet, a detail that is shared with a 14th c. Chakrasamvara painting that was found in the same caves by Gansser and was sold in Bonhams, Hong Kong, 1 December 2023, lot 1843. Also note the similar figural style, color scheme, and composition to another early portrait thangka in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.80.188).