pigmented with a water-solvent binding agent and gilt on cloth, 71.7 x 47.8 cm, behind glass, framed, slightly rubbed, (Hr)

We are grateful to Mr Uwe Niebuhr MA for his assistance in cataloguing this work.

This thangka depicts Buddha Shakyamuni, encompassed by tales from his varied early life. In the main, these avadanas are beloved moral tales intended to inspire believers to engage in their faith and undertake good deeds. The most important examples of this kind of literature are the Avadana-Sataka, Asoka-Avadana, Divya-Avadana and the later Avadana-Kalpalata. The latter text dating from the 11th century is based on the collection of 108 tales by the Kashmiri poet, Ksemendra.
The text, also known as Leaves of the Heaven Tree, was based in part on the earlier writing of the Buddhist Pāli Canon.
The avadanas are generally divided into series of up to 41 thangkas.
Well-known complete sets from the 19th century – based on Ksemendra's Avadana-Kalpalata – are held in India by the Norbulingka Institute (Dharamsala) and by the Tibet House Museum (New Dehli).
To the centre of the thangka, Buddha Shakyamuni is depicted in the patchwork cloak of a monk, with his right hand making a wish-granting gesture. He is seated on a white sickle moon above a lotus rising up from a blue lake. The Buddha is shown in a frontal pose encompassed by a blue mandorla and green nimbus. The narrative depictions of the avadanas are embedded in a hilly landscape with trees and buildings. In total, 11 of the 108 tales are illustrated, precisely following tales 17 to 27 as featured in the Avadana-Kalpalata.

A total of 80 gilt inscriptions permit the identification of individual scenes from the respective tales. Each avadana concludes the final scene with a reference to the respective number of the Leaves of the Heaven Tree. The images begin in the upper right-hand corner of the thangka.

The following Avadānas are shown on the Thangka:
(17) The prophecy of Maitreya, 1-6
(18) The justice of king Ādarśamukha, 7-10
(19) The former lifes Śāriputra, 11-13
(20) Śroṇa Koṭikarṇa learning the force of karma, 14-24
(21) Āmrapālī and the king, 25-30
(22) The gift of the grove, 31-42
(23) The meeting of father and son, 43-48
(24) Viśvaṁtara‘s perfection of giving, 49-61
(25) The denial of Bodhisattvas, 62-70
(26) The conquest of Māra, 71-74
(27) The origin of Śākyas, 75-80

1 www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm

2 www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm