by: Jörg Heimbel

Two Paintings of a Newly Identified Set Depicting the Lineage Masters of the Lamdre 

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A recent sale at Christie’s (Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art, 20.03.2024, Live auction 22498, Lot 511) featured a painting titled “A Rare Painting of Sakya Masters.” My further analysis was able to identify this painting as part of a 17th-century set of which each painting depicts three central figures likely representing the Lamdre (Lam ’bras) lineage. Surrounding the main figures are additional figures from a Ngor lineage.

This identification of a new set was made possible by discovering a structurally and stylistically similar painting at Himalayan Art Resources (HAR 11178). Both paintings also have the same type of inscription, both in the red lower strip at the front and on the back behind the three main figures. This post will thus introduce the two paintings of this newly identified set (Figs. 1–2), which feature the less common composition of each painting depicting three Lamdre masters instead of the more common way of portraying one, two, or four masters.

Fig. 1. After Christie’s 2024: Lot 511 (adjusted)Fig. 2. After HAR 11178

Painting One

The three main figures of the first painting (Figs. 3–5) depict three of the five great founding fathers of the Sakya tradition: Lobpön Sönam Tsemo (Slob dpon bSod nams rtse mo, 1142–1182) in the top centre, Jetsün Drakpa Gyeltsen (rJe btsun Grags pa rgyal mtshan, 1147–1216) at the bottom left of our view, and Sakya Paṇḑita Künga Gyeltsen (Sa skya Paṇḑita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, 1182–1251) at the bottom right from our perspective. In addition to their conventional iconography, their identities are confirmed by two inscriptions, one on the front and the other on the reverse of the painting (Fig. 5).

Fig. 3. After Christie’s 2024: Lot 511Fig. 4. After Christie’s 2024: Lot 511Fig. 5. After Christie’s 2024: Lot 511

Inscription in the red bottom strip of the front side (with original misspellings; Fig. 6):

࿓། སྟན་པའི་བདག་པོ་རྗེ་རྩུན་སྐུ་མཆེད་གཉིས། འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་དངོས་ས་ཀྱ་པཎ་ཆེན་ལ་། ནག་པོ་རིམ་བཞིའི་བསྒྱུད་བར་བཅས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་། བདག་སོགས་སྟུལ་བྱའི་ལས་སྦྱངས་དུ་གསོལ།

@| stan pa’i bdag po rje rtsun sku mched gnyis| ’jam pa’i dbyang dngos sa kya paṇ chen la| nag po rim bzhi’i bsgyud bar bcas rnams kyi| bdag sogs stul bya’i las sbyangs du gsol|

Corrections: stan = bstan, rtsun = btsun, dbyang = dbyangs, kya = skya, bsgyud bar = brgyud par, kyi = kyis, stul = gdul

Fig. 6. After Christie’s 2024: Lot 511 (adjusted)

Translation of the inscription: May the Masters of the Teachings—the Two Venerable Brothers [i.e., Sönam Tsemo and Drakpa Gyeltsen]—and the True Mañjughoṣa—Sakya Paṇchen [i.e., Sakya Paṇḑita]—along with the lineage of the Four Stages of the Black One [i.e., Kṛṣṇācārya], purify the karma of the disciples, including my own.

Inscription on the reverse behind the three major figures (omitting the opening Sanskrit formulas written in Tibetan script):

࿓། སློབ་དཔོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་བསོད་ནམ་བརྩེ་མོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་སུ་འཆིའོ་བྱིན་གྱི་རླབས་ཏུ་གསོལ།
༄། རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་སུ་འཆིའོ་བྱིན་གྱི་རླབས་ཏུ་གསོལ།
༄། འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ས་སྐྱ་པཎ་ཆེན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་སུ་འཆིའོ་བྱིན་གྱི་རླབས་ཏུ་གསོལ།

@| slob dpon rin po che bsod nam brtse mo la phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su ’chi’o byin gyi rlabs tu gsol|
@| rnal ’byor gyi dbang phyug grags pa rgyal mtshan la phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su ’chi’o byin gyi rlabs tu gsol|
@| ’jam pa’i dbyangs sa skya paṇ chen la phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su ’chi’o byin gyi rlabs tu gsol|

Corrections: nam = nams, brtse = rtse, gyi = gyis, gyi = gyis, gyi = gyis

The lineage represented by the minor figures surrounding the three central ones is identified by inscription as “the lineage of the Four Stages of the Black One.” The Black One most likely refers to the Indian mahāsiddha Kṛṣṇācārya and the “Four Stages” to a specific Cakrasaṃvara practice in which he is said to have condensed the essence of all Cakrasaṃvara scriptures.

The lineage still awaits proper analysis by comparison with other paintings and identification with the help of a record of teachings received (thob yig, gsan yig). For the moment, I will concentrate on the end of the lineage in the lower part of the painting, where we find numerous abbots of Ngor (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7. Diagram of Fig. 1

Labelling inscriptions of the lineage masters as far as legible on the available image of the painting (abbreviations of the original Tibetan are decoded):

  1. ku ma ra ma ti
  2. [illegible]
  3. ngor chen
  4. ’dren …
  5. sangs rgyas rin chen
  6. lha mchog seng ge
  7. dkon mchog lhun grub
  8. sangs rgyas seng ge
  9. dkon mchog rgya mtsho
  10. dkon mchog dpal ldan
  11. paṇ chen
  12. kun dga’ bkra shis
  13. shes rab ’byung gnas
  14. [illegible]

Identification of the lineage masters:

  1. Zhönnu Lodrö (gZhon nu blo gros) = Sabzang Pakpa Zhönnu Lodrö (Sa bzang ’Phags pa gZhon nu blo gros, 1346–1412)?
  2. [???]
  3. Ngorchen Künga Zangpo (Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang po, 1382–1456), founder and 1st abbot of Ngor
  4. Possibly Konchok Pel (dKon mchog ’phel, 1445–1514), the 7th abbot of Ngor
  5. Sanggye Rinchen (Sangs rgyas rin chen, 1453–1524), the 8th abbot of Ngor
  6. Lhachok Sengge (lHa mchog seng ge, 1468–1535), the 9th abbot of Ngor
  7. Konchok Lhundrup (dKon mchog lhun grub, 1497–1557), the 10th abbot of Ngor
  8. Sanggye Sengge (Sangs rgyas seng ge, 1504–1569), the 11th abbot of Ngor
  9. Konchok Gyatso (dKon mchog rgya mtsho), not an abbot of Ngor
  10. Possibly Konchok Penden (dKon mchog dpal ldan, 1526–1590), the 12th abbot of Ngor
  11. Drangti Panchen Namkha Pelzang (Brang ti Paṇ chen Nam mkha’ dpal bzang, 1535–1602), the 13th abbot of Ngor
  12. Kunga Tashi (Kun dga’ bkra shis, 1558–1615), the 14th abbot of Ngor
  13. Sherap Jungne (Shes rab ’byung gnas, 1596–1653), the 18th abbot of Ngor
  14. [???]

Painting Two

The three main figures of the second painting (Fig. 8) depict three abbots of Ngor: Drangti Panchen Namkha Pelzang (Brang ti Paṇ chen Nam mkha’ dpal bzang, 1535–1602), the 13th abbot of Ngor, in the top centre, Sharchen Künga Tashi (Shar chen Kun dga’ bkra shis, 1558–1615), the 14th abbot of Ngor, at the bottom left, and Namkha Sanggye (Nam mkha’ sangs rgyas, fl. 16th/17th century), the 17th abbot of Ngor, at the bottom right. They are surrounded by secondary figures representing another lineage of Ngor. As with the previous painting, the three main figures are identifiable by two inscriptions, one on the front and the other on the reverse of the painting.

Fig. 8. After HAR 11178

Inscription (abbreviations of the original Tibetan are decoded) in the red lower strip on the front (at least what can be read from the available low-quality image; Fig. 9):

་་་པཎ་ཆེན་ནམ་མཁའ་མཚན། མཁྱེན་རབ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཤར་ཆེན་ཀུན་དགའ་ཞབ། ཐུགས་རྗེའི་བདག་ཉིད་ནམ་མཁའ་སངས་རྒྱས་ལ། ནཱ་རོ་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་བླ་མ་རྒྱུད་བཅས་བཞུགས།

… paṇ chen nam mkha’ mtshan| mkhyen rab dbang phyug shar chen kun dga’ zhab| thugs rje’i bdag nyid nam mkha’ sangs rgyas la| nā ro mkha’ spyod bla ma rgyud bcas bzhugs|

Corrections: zhab = zhabs, rgyud = brgyud

Fig. 9. After HAR 11178 (adjusted)

Since there is no image of the painting’s reverse available, I copy here the inscription behind the three major figures as transliterated by Jeff Watt at Himalayan Art Resources (HAR 11178) (omitting the opening Sanskrit formulas in Tibetan script):

ལྔ་རིག་པཎ་ཆེན་ནམ་མཁའ་དཔལ་བཟང་ལ། ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིའོ། བྱིན་གྱིས་རླབས་ཏུ་གསོལ།
ཤར་ཆེན་བྱམས་པ་ཀུན་དགའ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལ། ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིའོ། བྱིན་གྱིས་རླབས་ཏུ་གསོལ།
རྗེ་བཙུན་ནམ་མཁའ་སངས་རྒྱས་ལ། ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིའོ། བྱིན་གྱིས་རླབས་ཏུ་གསོལ།

lnga rig paṇ chen nam mkha’ dpal bzang la| phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su mchi’o| byin gyis rlabs tug sol|
shar chen byams pa kun dga’ bkra shis la| phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su mchi’o| byin gyis rlabs tug sol|
rje btsun nam mkha’ sangs rgyas la| phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su mchi’o| byin gyis rlabs tug sol|

The lineage represented by the minor figures surrounding the three central ones is identified by inscription as “the lineage of masters of Nārokhecarī.” This form of Vajrayoginī is also depicted in the upper part of the painting in the first line as the second figure from the viewer’s left.

As with the previous painting, the lineage still awaits proper analysis by comparison with other paintings and identification by means of a record of teachings received (thob yig, gsan yig). For the time being, I will concentrate only on the end of the lineage in the lower part of the painting, where we find numerous abbots of Ngor (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10. Diagram of Fig. 2

Labelling inscriptions of the lineage masters as far as legible on the available image of the painting (abbreviations of the original Tibetan are decoded):

  1. brag phug pa
  2. [illegible]
  3. [illegible]
  4. [illegible]
  5. ngor chen
  6. mus chen
  7. kun mkhyen
  8. sangs rgyas rin chen
  9. dkon mchog lhun grub
  10. dkon mchog dpal ldan
  11. [illegible]
  12. kun dga’ bkra shis
  13. dpal ldan don grub
  14. [illegible]
  15. [illegible]

Identification of the lineage masters:

  1. Nabza Drakpukpa Sönam Pel (Na bza’ Brag phug pa bSod nams dpal, 1277–1350)
  2. [illegible]
  3. [illegible]
  4. [illegible]
  5. Ngorchen Künga Zangpo (Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang po, 1382–1456), founder and 1st abbot of Ngor
  6. Müchen Könchok Gyeltsen (Mus chen dKon mchog rgyal mtshan, 1388–1469), the 2nd abbot of Ngor
  7. Gorampa Sönam Sengge (Go rams pa bSod nams seng ge, 1429–1489), the 6th abbot of Ngor
  8. Sanggye Rinchen (Sangs rgyas rin chen, 1453–1524), the 8th abbot of Ngor
  9. Konchok Lhundrup (dKon mchog lhun grub, 1497–1557), the 10th abbot of Ngor
  10. Könchok Penden (dKon mchog dpal ldan, 1526–1590), the 12th abbot of Ngor
  11. (According to iconography) Drangti Panchen Namkha Pelzang (Brang ti Paṇ chen Nam mkha’ dpal bzang, 1535–1602), the 13th abbot of Ngor
  12. Sharchen Künga Tashi (Shar chen Kun dga’ bkra shis, 1558–1615), the 14th abbot of Ngor
  13. Penden Döndrup, (dPal ldan don grub,1563–1636), the 16th abbot of Ngor
  14. [illegible]
  15. [illegible]

As a small aside, it is interesting to note that in both paintings Ngorchen is depicted with his distinctive bald spot on the top of his head, known from other depictions, but which in this case seems to take the form of a uṣṇīṣa-style cranial protuberance (Figs. 11–12).

Bibliography

Christie’s. 2024. “A Rare Painting of Sakya Masters.” Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art. 20 March 2024, Live Auction 22498, Lot 511. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6472068.

HAR = Himalayan Art Resources. https://www.himalayanart.org.