The aim of this post is to establish the identify of the main figure in the thangka under discussion (Fig. 1). Various online sources identify the figure as Rongtön Sheja Künrik (Rong ston Shes bya kun rig, 1367–1449), the founder of Nālendra monastery in Phenpo (’Phan po), located in Ü (dBus) province northeast of Lhasa. One possible source of this misidentification might be the painting’s entry on Himalayan Art Resources (HAR 89472), which suggests this identification, albeit with question marks. However, as will be demonstrated below, the main figure actually depicts Lhachok Sengge (lHa mchog seng ge, 1468–1535), the 9th abbot of Ngor.1
The painting is part of a well-known set of more than thirty paintings depicting the successive lineage masters of the Lamdre (Lam ’bras) instructions, as transmitted in the Ngor tradition. Commissioned in the late 16th or early 17th century, the set is in a late Newari-influenced Beri (Bal ris) style. The last known painting of the set, number 34, depicts Drangti Penchen Namkha Pelzang (Brang ti Paṇ chen Nam mkha’ dpal bzang, 1535–1602), the 13th abbot of Ngor, as its main figure. The late 16th or early 17th century dating is further suggested by the observation that several of the lineages surrounding the main figures in the paintings of this set end with masters such as Könchok Lhündrup (dKon mchog lhun grub, 1497–1557), the 10th abbot of Ngor, as in the present painting, or Drangti Penchen. Thus, the set might have been completed during the time of Drangti Penchen or shortly after his death. In a previous post, I introduced Sharchen Jampa Künga Tashi (Shar chen Byams pa Kun dga’ bkra shis, 1558–1615), the 14th abbot of Ngor, as the patron who commissioned a Lamdre lineage master set as a funerary commission for his late teacher Könchok Penden (dKon mchog dpal ldan, 1526–1590), the 12th abbot of Ngor. Künga Tashi might also have been involved in commissioning the set to which Lhachok Sengge’s painting belongs, but this awaits further clarification.
Apparently, the entire set of paintings was already in New York in the early 1960s. It was subsequently divided, with the individual paintings now in private and museum collections worldwide, including the one of Lhachok Sengge in the Musée Guimet.2 David Jackson located twenty-seven of these paintings (see one of my previous posts), but seven remain missing if Drangti Penchen is considered to be the final painting of the set, number 34.
The set depicts the successive lineage masters as single main figures, surrounded by minor figures representing various lineages. Although the painting showing Lhachok Sengge is the 29th in the set, it should be hung as the 14th to the left of the central Vajradhara painting. The minor figures arranged around Lhachok Sengge represent the lineage of the Madhyamaka tradition of the Bodhisattva vow, which ends with Könchok Lhündrup, the 10th abbot of Ngor, who is depicted as the final human figure at the bottom of the right-hand column.
Each painting features different types of inscriptions that enable the depicted masters to be identified. The bottom red strip contains an invocational prayer dedicated to the main figure, followed by paying homage to the lineage of the surrounding minor figures. Furthermore, each minor figure has a labelling inscription.
The individual syllables of Lhachok Sengge’s name (emphasised in bold by the author) are interwoven in the invocational prayer, enabling his identification:
࿓། བླ་མ་རྣམས་དང་ལྷག་པའི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ལ། །མཆོག་ཏུ་དད་པས་ཚུལ་བཞིན་མཉེས་བྱས་སྟེ། །རྒྱུད་དང་མན་༼ ངག་ ༽དུ་མའི་ཚོགས་བཟུང་ནས། །ཇི་བཞིན་སྨྲ་བའི་སིང་གེ་༼ དེ་ ༽ལ་འདུད། །སེམས་བསྐྱེད་དབུ་མ་ལུགས་ཀྱི་བླ་མ་བརྒྱུད་པ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་རྣམས་༼ ལ་ ༽ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །སྐྱེ་བ་ཐམས་དུ་རྗེས་སུ་བཟུང་ཞིང་བྱིན་གྱིས་རླབ་ཏུ་གསོལ།། མངྒལཾ།
@| bla ma rnams dang lhag pa’i lha tshogs la| |mchog tu dad pas tshul bzhin mnyes byas ste| |rgyud dang man {ngag} du ma’i tshogs bzung nas| |ji bzhin smra ba’i sing ge {de} la ’dud| |sems bskyed dbu ma lugs kyi bla ma brgyud pa la sogs pa’i lha tshogs rnams {la} phyag ’tshal lo| |skye ba thams cad du rjes su bzung zhing byin gyis rlab tu gsol|| mangalaṃ|
Translation of the inscription:
I bow to the lion of exact exposition,
Who through highest faith in the lamas and the assembly of favoured deities
Correctly gratifies them and
Who upholds a mass of numerous tantras and instructions.
I pay homage to the assembly of deities, including the lineage masters of the Madhyamaka tradition of the Bodhisattva vow. May I be favoured and blessed in all lifetimes. Maṅgalaṃ.
The invocational prayer of Lhachok Sengge can also be found, with very minor variations, in a liturgy of the Lamdre lineage masters. This text was first written by Pakpa Lodrö Gyeltsen (’Phags pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235–1280), the Lam ’bras brgyud pa’i phyag mchod. It contains the prayers from Vajradhara down to Pakpa’s uncle and teacher, Sakya Paṇḍita (Sa skya Paṇḍi ta, 1182–1251). Over time, the text by Pakpa was supplemented by masters from different Sakya sub-schools, who updated the prayers in accord with their respective Lamdre lineages. The verses by Pakpa, together with later supplements for the main masters of the Lamdre lineage of Ngor, were integrated into a guru-worship ritual compiled by Künga Chöpel (Kun dga’ chos ’phel), the Lam ’bras bla ma mchod pa’i cho ga khrigs chags su bkod pa tshogs gnyis rab rgyas. This compilation contains the supplementary prayer for Pakpa along with those for the successive abbots of Ngor down to Tsültrim Lhündrup (Tshul khrims lhun grub, 1676–1730), the 32nd abbot of Ngor. The invocation for Lhachok Sengge, as set out in the text, reads as follows (emphasis in bold by the author):3
བླ་མ་རྣམས་དང་ལྷག་པའི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ལ། །མཆོག་ཏུ་དད་པས་ཚུལ་བཞིན་མཉེས་བྱས་ནས། །རྒྱུད་དང་མན་ངག་དུ་མའི་མཛོད་འཛིན་པ། །ཇི་བཞིན་སྨྲ་བའི་སེང་གེ་དེ་ལ་འདུད།
bla ma rnams dang lhag pa’i lha tshogs la| |mchog tu dad pas tshul bzhin mnyes byas nas| |rgyud dang man ngag du ma’i mdzod ‘dzin pa| |ji bzhin smra ba’i seng ge de la ‘dud|
Translation of the inscritpion:
I bow to the lion of exact exposition,
The one who through highest faith in the lamas and assembly of favoured deities
Correctly gratified them and
The one who upholds a treasury of many tantras and instructions.
The reason for mistakenly identifying the main figure in the painting as Rongtön Sheja Künrik was due to a misinterpretation of the term “Lion of Speech” or “Lion of Exposition” in the inscription, which was a common epithet of Rongtön: Mawe Sengge (sMra ba’i seng ge).
Another argument against identifying Rongtön as the main figure of the painting is that he was not part of the Lamdre transmission of the Ngor tradition. Rongtön instead received the Lamdre from Tekchen Chöje Künga Tashi (Theg chen Chos rje Kun dga’ bkra shis, 1349–1425), placing him in the Thekchen tradition (Theg chen lugs), which was transmitted at his monastic foundation of Nālendra.4
Endnotes
- The identity of the main figure was already mentioned in passing by Jackson 2016: 317. ↩︎
- See Béguin 1977: 128 (no. 114), Béguin 1990: 79 (no. 37). ↩︎
- Kun dga’ chos ’phel, Lam ’bras bla ma mchod pa’i cho ga (fol. 6b1 / p. 857.1) ↩︎
- See Fermer et al. 2024: 192, Jackson 2010: 94, 102, n. 3. ↩︎
Bibliography
Béguin, Gilles (ed.). 1977. Dieux et demons de de l’Himâlaya: Art Boudddhisme lamaїque. Paris: Editions des musées nationaux.
Béguin, Gilles. 1990. Art ésotérique de l’Himâlaya. Catalogue de la donation Lionel Fournier. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux.
Fermer, Mathias et al. 2024. The Gongkar Lamdre: Masters in Khyenluk Style. Dehradun: Gongkar Choede.
HAR = “Himalayan Art Resources.” https://www.himalayanart.org.
Jackson, David P. 2010. “Four Tibetan Paintings Linked with Ngor: Stylistic Diversity in the 16th Century.” Arts of Asia 40/2: 93–102.
———. 2016. A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet: Khyentse Chenmo of Gongkar. Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series. New York: Rubin Museum of Art.
Kun dga’ chos ’phel. Lam ’bras bla ma mchod pa’i cho ga = Lam ’bras bla ma mchod pa’i cho ga khrigs chags su bkod pa tshogs gnyis rab rgyas. In Gdams ṅag mdzod: A Treasury of Instructions and Techniques for Spiritual Realization. Compiled by ’Jam-mgon Koṅ-sprul Blo-gros-mtha’-yas. Reproduced from a xylographic print from the Dpal-spuṅs blocks. Delhi: N. Lungtok and N. Gyaltsen, 1971, vol. 4 (ga), 15 fols., pp. 846–875.