尺寸：Image: H. 28 3/4 in. (73 cm); W. 24 in. (61 cm)
年代：14世纪
质地：唐卡 Distemper and gold on cloth
风格：西藏
来源：纽约大都会博物馆
参阅：外部链接
鉴赏：
Thousand-Armed Chenresi, a Cosmic Form of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara

In this rare early painting of Chenresi, a cosmic form of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, he is represented with ten heads and one thousand arms, which fan out to form a golden aureole. Each of the Buddhist savior’s hands has an eye in its palm, an embodiment of his power to radiate wisdom in every quarter of the universe. He stands elevated on a lotus pedestal and is surrounded by cave-like niches, each occupied by either a lineage lama or a protective deity. At lower left is an offering table with attendant monks. Two inscriptions appear on the reverse: one in Sanskrit (the ye dharma charm-verse, or dharaṇi) and one in Tibetan that praises patience, “the most holy ascetic practice.”

Inscription: The inscription on the painting's reverse begins with a Tibetan transliteration of a Sanskrit dedicatory formula commonly used in India from an early period and seen, for example, in the colophons of Indian medieval manuscripts. The Sanskrit verse reads:

“Ye dharma hetu prabhava hetu tesham tathagatam…teshan…ye…nirodha he avadat mahasramana.”

It may be translated as follows: “Those things which have an origin in a cause, their cause the Tathagata has stated, and their cessation”.

It thus summarizes the essential achievements of Sakyamuni Buddha. This is followed by a brief inscription composed in Tibetan:

“Patience, the most holy ascetic practice, is the best means of attaining nirvana (lit., going beyond suffering), thus the Buddha has said. In causing harm to another and in causing harm to another monk one does not acquire religious merit.”

来源:
[A.R.C.O. Antiques Ltd. , London, until 1989, sold to MMA]

展览:
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet,” September 16, 2024–January 12, 2025.

著录:
“Recent Acquisitions: A Selection 1988–1989.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 47, no. 2 (Fall 1989) . pp. 94–95.
Steven M. Kossak. “Nepalese and Tibetan Art.” Arts of Asia, 24, no. 2, March–April 1994. p. 110, fig. 12.
Singer, Jane Casey. “Painting in Central Tibet, ca. 950-1400.” Artibus Asiae 54, no. 1/2 (1994). pp. 87–136 (p. 129), fig. 31.
Kossak, Steven M. Painted Images of Enlightenment: Early Tibetan Thankas, 1050–1450. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2010, pp. 144–45, fig. 94.