While attempting to identify a Tibetan master depicted as a minor figure in a thangka painting as part of the lineage of the bodhisattva vow according to the Madhyamaka tradition, I encountered an instructive detail in the record of teachings received by Könchok Lhündrup (dKon mchog lhun grub, 1497–1557), the 10th abbot of Ngor (tenure: 1534–1557).1 To my surprise, I noticed that the lineage record included different types of glosses. What appears at first glance to be a standard lineage record in fact preserves brief iconographic glosses, practical notes that seem intended to guide artists in representing particular lineage masters.
The lineage record suggested to identify the depicted master in question as Lochen Jangchub Tsemo (Lo chen Byang chub rtse mo, 1303/15–1379/80). Moreover, it also contained an iconographic gloss providing a visual clue for his more definitive identification. However, this gloss was originally intended for a painter rendering Lochen Jangchub Tsemo’s portrait, describing him as “stout, with a red hat having a long pointed tip” (tshan po zhwa dmar rtse ring can).
Here I quote part of the relevant lineage record:2
དབུ་མ་ལུགས་ཀྱི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་པ་ལན་བཞིའི་བར་དུ་ཐོབ་པའི་བརྒྱུད་པ་ནི། ་་་ རིན་ཆེན་༼ བོད་པཎ་ཞྭ་ཅན་༽གྲགས་པ་ཆོས་རྗེ་ ས་སྐྱ་པ། །བསོད་ནམས་རྩེ་མོ་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དང་། ཆོས་རྗེ་ས་པཎ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་དང་། །འཇམ་དབྱངས་འཁོན་སྟོན་བྱང་ སེམས་རིན་ཆེན་མགོན་༼ དབུ་སེ་༽། ༼ དབུ་སེ་༽རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐོགས་མེད་ལོ་ཆེན་བྱང་༼ ཚོན་པོ་ཞྭ་དམར་རྩེ་རིང་ཅན་༽རྩེ་དང་།
dbu ma lugs kyi sems bskyed kyi sdom pa lan bzhi’i bar du thob pa’i brgyud pa ni| […] rin chen {bod paṇ zhwa can} grags pa chos rje sa skya pa| |bsod nams rtse mo grags pa rgyal mtshan dang| chos rje sa paṇ chos rgyal ’phags pa dang| |’jam dbyangs ’khon ston byang sems rin chen mgon {dbu se}| {dbu se} rgyal sras thogs med lo chen byang {tshon po zhwa dmar rtse ring can} rtse dang|
In his depiction under consideration (Fig. 1), Jangchub Tsemo appears as a minor figure within the Madhyamaka bodhisattva vow lineage. He is shown in half profile with a grey beard, wearing a red hat tapering to a small point, reminiscent of a paṇḍita hat, with long lappets falling over his shoulders. Compared with the other lineage masters in the painting, his appearance is noticeably stouter. His painted figure thus corresponds closely to the gloss.
A separate painting in which he appears as the principal figure (Figs. 2–4) confirms these iconographic features: imposing physiognomy, red pointed hat, and grey full beard.
Another depiction of him as a minor figure in the same lineage (Fig. 3) once again features the red pointed hat and grey beard, though the stout quality is less pronounced. Taken together, these images support the identification suggested by the lineage record.
The Tibetan passage includes similar glosses for other lineage masters. Bari Lotsawa Rinchen Drakpa (Ba ri Lo tsā ba Rin chen grags pa, 1040–1111) is specified as Tibetan wearing a paṇḍita hat (bod paṇ zhwa can). The glosses for two subsequent lineage masters, Jangsem Rinchen Gönpo (Byangs sems Rin chen mgon po) and Gyelse Tokme Zangpo (rGyal sras Thogs med bzang po, 1295–1369), indicate that they should be depicted with grey hair (dbu se).
These glosses suggest that lineage records served not only as historical records for depictions of lineages, but also, in the present case, as practical iconographic guides. These glosses provide a bridge between textual transmission and artistic production. Here, just a few words—“stout, with a red hat having a long pointed tip”—help secure the identification of Lochen Jangchub Tsemo and illuminate the interface between lineage record and artistic practice.
Endnotes
- See Heimbel 2021: 322–323, 350. ↩︎
- See dKon mchog lhun grub, Dam pa’i chos thos pa’i tshul (p. 142.3–10). ↩︎
Bibliography
dKon mchog lhun grub (1497–1557). Dam pa’i chos thos pa’i tshul = Chos kyi rje dpal ldan bla ma dam pa rnams las dam pa’i chos thos pa’I tshul gsal bar bshad pa’i yi ge thub bstan rgyas pa’i nyin byed ces bya ba’i legs par bshad pa. In dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ’jug khang (ed.), E wam. bka’ ’bum. 20 vols. Beijing: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009, vol. 16, pp. 139–399.
Heimbel, Jörg. 2021. “Portraits of the Great Abbots of Ngor: The Memorial or Death Anniversary Thangka (dus thang).” In Volker Caumanns, Jörg Heimbel, Kazuo Kano, and Alexander Schiller (eds.), Gateways to Tibetan Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honour of David P. Jackson on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday. 2 vols. Indian and Tibetan Studies 12.1–2. Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, vol. 1, pp. 301–379.