GRAND TANGKA REPRÉSENTANT UN ABBÉ DU MONASTÈRE DE NGOR TIBET CENTRAL, PROVINCE DE TSANG, CA. 1704 |

Détrempe sur toileLa grande figure centrale assise en méditation, portant le chapeau rouge de style pandita de la lignée des Sakya, le haut en forme de dôme à deux longs rabats brodés d’or, vêtue d’une riche robe brodée rouge et or, les mains jointes tenant un vase couronné par la divinité Amitayus, de part et d’autre du visage de l'abbé, deux lamas et deux stupas, chorten, intégrés dans un halo orné de rinceaux feuillagés dorés sur fond rouge de forme trilobée auréolant la figure centrale, entourée sur tout le pourtour en une frise continue d’un riche registre de saints, de mahasiddhas, de divinités et de détenteurs de lignées, encadrés par une frise de nuages dorés sur fond rouge, la partie basse comportant une inscription dorée sur trois lignes

Overall wear to the surface and losses to the pigments, particularly to the upper left hand side, along the upper and lower edges of the painting. Areas of retouching and repainting, particularly to the dark green and navy blue. Scattered creases, there is a ca. 10cm long gap along the seam where the two lengths of cloth were joined is loose in the upper part of the painting.
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The pandita-style red lappet hat of the Sakya lineage with its domed top and gold-on-gold edged lappets identifies the figure prominently depicted at the centre of this painting as a Sakya lineage hierarch. The long inscription at the bottom of the painting indicates that this particular painting was commissioned by an abbot of the Ngor Evam Choden Monastery in 1704. While the master may not be identified with certainty, the calendar date given in the inscription as well as the depiction of the vase of longevity and two long-life deities suggest it could be a portrait of the 25th abbot Sangye Phuntshok, who headed the monastery from 1686 to 1689, see Joerg Heimbel, Vajradhara in Human Form: The Life and Times of Ngor chen Kun dga' bzang_po, Lumbini, Lumbini International Research Institute, 2017, pp. 42 and 43. The name of the 28th abbot of Ngor, Jampa Tsultrim Pelzang, tenure from 1703 to 1709, mentioned in the inscription further indicates that he may have commissioned this painting in 1704, see Joerg Heimbel, ibid., pp. 526-527. The unusually large size of this painting and its stylistic details including the rich application of pigments and gold can be found on three other paintings of Sakya lamas of the Ngor tradition in American museum collections which belong to the same set, the first in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, (item no. 65362), the second in the Carlos Museum, Emory, Atlanta, Georgia (object no. 2000.005.005) and the third in the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey (Fig.  1). In her caption of the Newark painting portraying abbot Sonam Gyatso (d. 1667), Valrae Reynolds notes that this set of Ngor abbots of large size may have been installed permanently at Ngor, see Valrae Reynolds, The Newark Museum: Tibetan Collection, vol. III Sculpture and Painting, Newark, New Jersey, 1986, pp. 154-155 and pl. 12.

We would like to thank Yannick Laurent, Wolfson College, Oxford, and Dr. Joerg Heimbel, University of Hamburg, for their kind assistance in translating the inscription and researching this painting.