A THANGKA DEPICTING MAITREYA IN TUSHITA HEAVEN Tibet, dated by inscription 1790

Maitreya seated in Tushita paradise with Atisha and Tsongkhapa to his right and left, and surrounded by a host of deities and lamas, with Ushnishavijaya and Mahakala flanking Mount Meru below, and a lengthy Newari inscription along the lower register

G.B.F. Muir, political adviser to the rulers of Tehri Garwhal, Uttarakhand, 1916—1920.
Sotheby's London, 19 October 1995, lot 134.

Wear, rubbing and creasing throughout, with some consolidation to uneven wear of pigments.
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This painting portrays the bodhisattva Maitreya in the center of his heavenly palace in the Tushita paradise, surrounded by deities and lamas, with the more common form of Maitreya seated in western fashion below blessing a supplicant lama. The main figure of Maitreya Bodhisattva is shown orange in color adorned in full bodhisattva ornaments with an antelope skin over his left shoulder; he is seated in vajrasana on a lotus, his left hand in his lap holding a kalasa vase and his right before his chest in abhaya mudra.

This elegant painting belongs to a small specialized group of Tibetan paintings from central Tibet; those commissioned by immigrant Newar traders and artisans. These  can be identified by the inscriptions they bear on the lower border, written in Newari; they are almost always dated.

This inscription on this thangka records that it was the commissioned in 1790 CE (Nepal Samvat 910) by two Newar brothers of the Shakya caste, Shakyabhiksu  Bhimakhavar and Cikidhika, originally of  Manjushri Naka Mahavihar of lower Kathmandu . The younger brother, Cikidhika, was a businessman working at the Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse, the second largest town (after Lhasa) of central Tibet, at the time of the commission. It’s interesting to note that among the blessings expected by the brothers for their pious act was a wealth of brocade cloth, likely among the goods that Cikidhika dealt in during his time at the monastery.

The cult of Maitreya is important in all Tibetan monasteries, but particularly so in Tashilhunpo. The tallest building in the monastery is its impressive Champa Lhakhang containing an enormous metal sculpture of Maitreya in the western-style seated position. But this lhakhang, built in 1914, is in fact later than the 1790 painting.

It is unknown whether the paintings commissioned by devout Newar Buddhists in Tibet were painted by Tibetan or Newar artists, although it is clear the style of these paintings is dominated by the central Tibetan style of the period in which they were painted, largely the 18th and nineteenth centuries.

This painting of the bodhisattva Maitreya is unusual for the wealth of detail and the sophistication of the drawing and composition. The painting is filled with a plethora of figures, a crowd in which several important lamas and gods stand out. To the left and right of the central figure of Maitreya we can see Atisha (left) and Tsong Khapa (right), with Tsong Khapa’s disciple Khedrup Geleg Pal Zangpo in a charming bare-headed and realistic portrait below the lotus of the god. Ushnishavijaya is shown lower left, and the six-armed form of Mahakala on the lower right with a diminutive portrayal of a two armed Palden Lhama next to him. Between these two gods we see a portrayal of Mount Meru, the sacred mountain at the center of the universe. The upper registers of the painting, on the right contain portraits of green Tara and a four-armed bodhisattva who holds the attributes of both the goddess of wisdom, Prajnaparamita, and Maitreya, his lower two arms mimicking those of the central figure of Maitreya bodhisattva. On the right we see a white Tara holding a parasol and an eight-armed four-headed blue figure we identify as a form of Mahamanjusri, seated on a snow lion.

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 12911

Thanks to Jeff Watt for his help in identifying the figures in this painting. And thanks to Kashinath Tamot for the reading and translation of the inscription.