While looking at various appearances of Hevajra (Kye rdo rje) for my previous post, I came across some noteworthy depictions of Hevajra as the central figure of thangka paintings of the Sakya (Sa skya) tradition, and decided, more as a note to myself than to anyone else, to briefly introduce two of these paintings as consecutive posts.
The present painting (Fig. 1), sold by Sotheby’s in 2015 (see Sotheby’s: Lot 407), shows Hevajra blue in colour in the skull-cup-bearing form (Kapāladhara, Kye rdor thod pa can) with eight faces, sixteen arms, between which he embraces Nairātmyā (bDag med ma) with his first pair of arms, and four legs. Hevajra has his two right legs extended downwards, bent at the knees and pressing down the four Māras piled one on top of the other as a seat or cushion (brtsegs gdan), and his two left legs raised up in a half crossed-leg (ardhaparyaṅka, skyil krung phyed pa) dancing posture (gar stabs).
As the annotated image prepared by HAR (12958z) shows, Hevajra is surrounded by groups of secondary figures, including Virūpa and two unidentified Tibetan lamas; the Eight Goddesses (lHa mo brgyad) of the Hevajra maṇḍala; two-armed, four-armed, and six-armed forms of Hevajra; and the Sakya protectors Pañjaranātha Mahākāla (Gur mgon), Brahmarūpa Mahākāla (mGon po bram ze), and the form of Śrīdevī (dPal ldan lha mo) called Düsölma (Dud sol/gsol ma, Dhūmāṅgārī/Dhūmavatī).
As mentioned in my previous post, within the Lamdre (Lam ’bras) meditative system of the Sakya tradition, which is synonymous with the Instructional System of Hevajra (Kye rdor man ngag lugs), the skull-cup-bearing form of Hevajra can be depicted with two different leg postures. The depiction as in the present painting (Fig. 1) is the typical form as practised in the Ngor tradition. With the other leg posture (Fig. 2), Hevajra stands on his outstretched first right and left legs, trampling evenly over the four Māras as a seat or cushion (bkram gdan), and with his second right and left legs raised in a dancing posture. This posture is commonly found in the Dzong tradition (rDzong lugs) and Gongkar tradition (Gong dkar lugs), and also more commonly in the Sakya tradition proper.
In addition, the Hevajra tantric system (Kye rdor rgyud lugs or rGyud lugs) of the Sakya tradition is transmitted through three exegetical systems: The Commentarial System (‘Grel pa lugs) of Ḍombhi Heruka (Ḍombhi lugs/Ḍombhi Heruka lugs), the Tsokye system of Saroruhavajra/Padmavajra (mTsho skyes lugs), and the Nagpo system (Nag po lugs) of Kṛṣṇasamayavajra. These three are supplemented by the Instructional System/Lamdre as a fourth Hevajra lineage; see Fermer et al. 2024: 26–27, 93, 244–255 (Appendix A: The Four Hevajra Lineages of the Sakyapa). Exegetical discussions suggest that the Ngor tradition also used the Hevajra form of the Instructional System in other systems, such as that of the Tsokye; a subject that awaits further exploration in the future.
Therefore, the depiction of Hevajra, as in the present painting (Fig. 1), with his two right legs extended downwards, bent at the knees and pressing down the four Māras piled one on top of the other as a seat or cushion (brtsegs gdan), and his two left legs raised up in a half crossed-leg (ardhaparyaṅka, skyil krung phyed pa) dancing posture (gar stabs), can be considered an important art historical marker for attributing works to the Ngor tradition (or a Ngor lineage that was incorporated into the Sakya tradition proper).
In the red cartouche at the bottom of the painting, a long inscription written in black letters provides the historical context of the painting’s commission. The inscription states that the painting was commissioned by Nenjor Jampel Zangpo (rNal ’byor ’Jam dpal bzang po, 1789–1864), the 51st abbot of Ngor (1835–1842), in 1842, the last year of his abbatial tenure. It also contains the interesting remark that the painting was “newly made after an earlier thangka had worn out” (zhal thang snga ma rnyings nas gsar bskrun). This somewhat vague remark raises the question of whether the present painting is the restored version of the earlier one, or whether it is a new painting based on the earlier one. The commissioner, Nenjor Jampel Zangpo, most likely had himself depicted as the monk patron in the lower right-hand corner of the painting. Furthermore, the inscription identifies Hevarja as belonging to the Instructional System (Man ngag lugs)—that is, the Lamdre—and of the two different skull-cup-bearing forms of Hevajra within this system mentioned above, Hevajra is shown with the common leg posture of the Ngor tradition.
Inscription:
࿓࿔།། ཨོཾ་སྭ་སྟི། དཔལ་ཀྱེ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྐུ་བརྙན་འདི་ཨེ་ཝཾ་བསྟན་པ་ཇི་སྲིད་གནས་ཀྱི་བར་དུ། །རྩ་རྒྱུད་བརྟག་པ་གཉིས་པ་ཚུལ་བཞིའི་བཤད་ཐབས་བཅས་ཚེས་བཅུ་བཅུ་གསུམ་རྣམས་ལ་ཞལ་འདོན་གྱིས་མཆོད་ཞིང་། ཞལ་ཐང་སྔ་མ་རྙིངས་ནས་གསར་བསྐྲུན་མན་ངག་ལུགས་འདི་དགེ་བྱེད་ཅེས་པ་ཆུ་ཕོ་སྟག་གི་ལོར་ཤཱཀྱའི་དགེ་སློང་རྣལ་འབྱོར་འཇམ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོས་བཞེངས་པའི་དགེ་བས་ཚེ་རབས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ། ཐེག་མཆོག་ལམ་གྱི་མཐར་ཐུག་རྒྱུད་གསུམ་མན་ངག་དང་བཅས་པ་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་སྤེལ་བའི་བྱེད་པོར་གྱུར་ཅིག།།
@@|| oṃ swa sti| dpal kye rdo rje’i sku brnyan ’di e waṃ bstan pa ji srid gnas kyi bar du| |rtsa rgyud brtag pa gnyis pa tshul bzhi’i bshad thabs bcas tshes bcu bcu gsum rnams la zhal ’don gyis mchod zhing| zhal thang snga ma rnyings nas gsar bskrun man ngag lugs ’di dge byed ces pa chu pho stag gi lor shākya’i dge slong rnal ’byor ’jam dpal bzang pos bzhengs pa’i dge bas tshe rabs thams cad du| theg mchog lam gyi mthar thug rgyud gsum man ngag dang bcas pa ’dzin skyong spel ba’i byed por gyur cig||
Translation of the inscription:
This image of the Glorious Hevajra is worshipped, as long as the E waṃ Teachings persist, with recitations on the tenth and thirteenth of the Mūlatantra, the Dvikalpa [that is, the Hevajramūlatantra], together with the teaching methods of the Four Ways [of explaining a tantra]. This [image of the Glorious Hevajra of the] Instructional System, which was newly made after an earlier thangka had worn out, has been commissioned by Śākya bhikṣu Nenjor Jampel Zangpo in the year of the male water-tiger called śubhakṛt. May [I, Nenjor Jampel Zangpo] through the merit [of this worshipping and commissioning] become in all successive lives the agent who upholds, preserves, and spreads the Supreme Vehicle [that is, the Vajrayāna], the Apex of the Paths, the Tantra Trilogy [of Hevajra], together with the Instructions [that is, the Lamdre].
Bibliography
HAR 61137 = Himalayan Art Resources. “Hevajra (Buddhist Deity) – (Hevajra Tantra).” https://www.himalayanart.org/items/61137.
HAR 12958 = Himalayan Art Resources. “Hevajra (Buddhist Deity) – Margapala Instruction Lineage.” https://www.himalayanart.org/items/12958.
Fermer, Mathias et al. The Gongkar Lamdre: Masters in Khyenluk Style. Dehradun: Gongkar Choede, 2024.
Sotheby’s: Lot 407 = Sotheby’s 2015. “A Thangka Depicting Hevajra and Consort Tibet, Mid-19th Century,” Lot 407. Images Of Enlightenment: Devotional Works Of Art & Paintings, 16 September 2015, New York. https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/images-of-enlightenment-n09395/lot.407.html?locale=en.