A thangka depicting the 7th Dalai Lama with a vision of Kalachakra, Tibet, 18th century

Collection of Ilya Prigogine (1917-2003).

This intricately painted thangka depicts Kalachakra, Wheel of Time, with the multi-colored semi-wrathful god in union with Vishvamata, Mother of the Universe. The deities represent one of the most complex practices of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.

Kalachakra is depicted with four heads and twenty-four arms, with his principal head and upper body in blue symbolizing great wisdom. His red face represents passion, the white purity, and the yellow head facing rearwards, single-mindedness in meditation. One leg is white and the other red, denoting two separate halves of the yearly cycle. A tiger skin dangles below.

In union with his golden eight-armed prajna with four heads in white, blue, red and gold, the couple represent the embodiment of wisdom and compassion, the goal of Tibetan meditational practice leading to enlightenment and salvation of sentient beings. For an exhaustive treatise on the Kalachakra Tantra see Martin Brauen, The Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism, London, 1997. The monastic teacher depicted below Kalachakra, seated on clouds amidst the mountains, is the 7th Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso (1708-57), from whose visions Kalachakra emerges.

It is likely that this thangka is one of a set of paintings depicting his secret biography. Others from similar sets include a painting of the King of Shambhala from the collection of John and Karina Stewart, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources item no. 48285, and a painting of the 7th Dalai Lama in Mahasiddha form, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources item no. 100627, and in Pia and Louis Van der Wee, A Tale of Thangkas: Living with a Collection, Antwerp, 1995, pp 18-20, fig. 3.

Similar to portrayals of Milarepa, the 7th Dalai Lama is depicted surrounded by a large mountain range, with eight small grottoes depicting various scenes of tantric study and practice from his life. Farther still, on the periphery of the painting are eight siddha-like figures, who represent eight of the twenty-four pilgrimage sites (piṭha) from the Chakrasaṃvara Tantra. Below his table is a tantric feast (ganachakra) around which the ‘Five Sense Goddesses’ have gathered.

The complete set is preserved in gold silk block prints at Tibet House, New Delhi, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, of which the image corresponding to the present thangka is illustrated, Himalayan art resources, item no. 71957, can now be read in the context of the life of Kelzang Gyatso. He was born as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, and in his youth received the blessings of all of the 8 Great Bodhisattvas, representing his monastic study as a youth. Residing in Kham, and having been exiled from his seat at Lhasa, he was introduced to the congregations of siddhas (symbolized by the 5 Sense Goddesses holding the constituent offerings of the tantric feast), and he began to visit various pitha (pilgrimage sites) to understand the complex language in the highest teachings. Next, he began to dedicate time as a monastic teacher and in exegetical writings of the tantras, while continuing periodic retreats to the pithas (represented by the small vignettes in the mountains). The present thangka depicts the 7th Dalai Lama finally having a vision of himself as Kalachakra, probably having mastered the root text and the Vimalaprabha amongst others, and finishing his visitation to all 24 piṭha.

For other Tibetan 18th century representations of Kalachakra, see an example of the same size from the Qing Court Collection, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Tangka-Buddhist Painting of Tibet, Beijing, 2006, pl. 36, where it is recorded that it was presented to the Qianlong Emperor in the 48th year of the reign, corresponding to 1783, a gift of the Changkya Rolpa Dorje (1717-86), his close associate and National Preceptor. 

The lives of Rolpa Dorje and the 7tDalai Lama were closely intertwined. It was the Yongzheng Emperor who decreed in 1734 that, when the 7th Dalai Lama was allowed to return from exile, that Rolpa Dorje accompany him. He studied closely under him in Lhasa before returning to Beijing at the onset of the Qianlong reign. 

Ilya Prigogine (1917-2003), Belgian physicist, chemist and philosopher of Russian origin, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977 for his work on 'dissipative structures'. His interest in matter and the idea of 'order born from chaos' led him also to his interest in the the art of ancient civilizations. His collection of Mezcala sculptures was sold at Christie's Paris, 9th April 2018.