Rare tangka impérial représentant Avalokiteshvara Ekadashamukha détrempe sur tissu Chine, dynastie Qing, époque Qianlong (1736-1795), daté 1765

le bodhisattva à huit bras et onze têtes Avalokiteshvara Ekadashamukha esquissant le mudra anjali de ses mains principales devant sa poitrine, ses autres mains tenant les attributs padma, chapa et sara d’un côté et kalasha, chakra et mala de l’autre, la main droite inférieure en varadamudra marquée d’un œil ouvert dans la paume, une dépouille de daim bleue drapée sur son épaule gauche et une longue écharpe tourbillonnant de ses épaules sur ses bras et tombant jusqu’à la base lotiforme, vêtu de riches tissus brodés et paré de bijoux précieux, debout sur une fleur de lotus dans un paysage montagneux, encadré à droite par Hyagriva rouge et la Tara verte Shyama au-dessus et à sa gauche par Vajrapani bleu et la tara sita au-dessus, dans la partie basse se trouvent Sri Devi, Mahakala, Vajrabhairava avec sa parèdre Vajra Vetali et Yama Dharmaraja avec Chamundi, tous parmi les offrandes,  joyaux et paraphernales tantriques, dans le ciel parmi les nuages trônent Guhyasamaja, Kalachakra et Chakrasamvara et au centre Bouddha Akshobya entre la lune et le soleil, la scène encadrée d’une bordure arc-en-ciel faite de bandes rouge, orange, jaune, verte et bleue

Acquired in Mongolia in the 1950s.

The thangka is in overall very good condition. There are some areas of loss to the pigment along the rainbow border of the painting (the largest ca. 2cm), and a small, ca. 0.5cm large area of loss to the green pigment to the head just above the face of the Avalokitesvara. The colours are extremely vibrant and fresh, the gold detailing very fine.
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This rare imperial painting depicts Ekadashamukha Avalokiteshvara, the cosmic form of the bodhisattva with a tower of heads and a fan of arms. The red topmost head of the deity represents Buddha Amitabha, the bodhisattva’s spiritual progenitor. The ten heads beneath symbolise the steps on the path to Buddhist enlightenment, and the principal hands held before the heart symbolically protect the ratna jewel of this enlightened state. This form is one of the most popular manifestations of the bodhisattva in Tibetan Buddhism, the faith that was espoused by the Qianlong emperor. Paintings such as this hung in imperial palace temples, often with lacquered wood frames in place of the Tibetan style mounts that are traditionally made up of strips and panels of multi-coloured textiles: however the painted rainbow border of the work is meant to denote these textiles that have symbolic meaning in Tibetan Buddhist practise, representing the door into the spiritual world of the deity, see, for instance, a closely related Ushnishavijaya painting, possibly from the same Imperial workshop as the present Avalokiteshvara, illustrated in Asian Art Gallery, Chinese Imperial Patronage: Treasures from Temples and Palaces, Vol. II, London, 2005, illus. p. 105. Each example is painted with a very similar rainbow border. The principal deity in each painting is depicted with the same intricate textile designs finely painted in gold on red robes, deep blue and gold aprons, and with the same attention to detail and exquisite gold work throughout. The treatment of the landscape and clouds is identical and the design of the gold line-work on the lotus petals of the pedestals of the principal deities in each painting is typical of the Qing court repertoire.

A five-syllable mantra om ah hum sva ha is inscribed in red on the reverse of the painting coinciding with the heads and body of the bodhisattva, each syllable respectively representing Buddha body, speech, mind, attributes and activities. Invocation mantra mandalas are painted on the reverse coinciding with the protector deities. And the painting is further inscribed in cursive u-me script on the lower edge of the reverse rgyal po srid gsal gyi khrir tshugs lo sum chu zla ba bdun tshes gchig chos skor grangs so, 'the sacred circumambulations were undertaken on the first day of the seventh lunar month of the thirtieth regnal year'. Consistent with the style of the painting it may be assumed that the thirtieth regnal year refers to the thirtieth year of the Qianlong period, thus dating the work to 1765.