Shakyamuni Buddha distemper on cloth Tibet

The Buddha seated on a lotus with elaborate torana of elephants supporting lions and mounted vyala, makara above with Garuda clutching naga at the apex, set in a mountainous landscape with Shariputra and Maudgalyayana flanking the throne, each holding a patra and khakkhara, with the arhats Ajita and Rahula flanking dharmapala Vajrapani below, Angaja and Bakula above, with Tsong Khapa presiding amongst cloud-borne apsara.

Hugo E. Kreijger, Tibetan Painting, The Jucker Collection, Boston, 2001, p. 30, no. 2.

Painted with an exceptionally delicate hand, this gold on red ground scroll painting, tsalthang thanka, is amongst the finest of its genre. Compare textile patterns, the design of the lotus petals and scrolling halo with a rare seventeenth century Padmasambhava thanka from the Berti Aschmann Foundation now in the Rietberg Museum; see Uhlig, 1995, pp. 200-01, no. 146. Compare also the lotus petal and textile design and fine gold line work of a late 17^th century black ground thanka in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; see Rhie and Thurman, 1991, p. 212-14, no. 67.