A Thangka Depicting Atisha Dipamkara

Acquired in Bremen, Germany in the 1920s

The present 17th century thangkadepicting episodes from the life of Atisha is an elegant example of the stylistic trends of East Tibet from this period; in particular, use of narrative to inform the composition, as well as the incorporation of complex landscape and architectural elements, reflecting the powerful artistic influence of neighboring China, which dominate the composition and provide spatial delineation for each of the beautifully executed vignettes.

The early life story and renunciation of the remarkable Bengali monk-scholar Atisha Dipamkara (980–1054) mirrors the hagiography of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. Just like Siddhartha, Atisha was born into a high-caste Indian family, and displayed remarkable precocity and interest in spiritual matters from childhood. Atisha also left behind his family and an arranged marriage to join a group of mendicants and devote his life to spiritual practice, just as Siddhartha had done before him more than a millennium earlier.

Established as the abbot of the great monastic institution of Vikramashila, Atisha traveled to Tibet at the request of the Guge kings Yeshe-Ö and Jangchub-Ö to reinvigorate the tradition of Buddhist scholarship which had waned in the preceding centuries, due to the regime of Buddhist repression under the late king Langdarma. Atisha and his team of translators would later be canonized as the founders of the Sarma or New Translation School, responsible for the second wave of Buddhist philosophy filtering into Tibet from its Indian homeland.

Compare the overall composition, including the gold-tipped aureole; multicolored mandorla with radiating spires; the drapery of the richly embroidered robes; the upturned petals of the single lotus throne; the gabled rooftops; the decorative foliate elements; and the undulating clouds and rivers with another thangka from the first half of the 18th century also depicting Atisha with episodes from his life, see D. Jackson, A History of Tibetan Painting, Vienna, 1996, p.360, pl. 68.