by: Jörg Heimbel

Portraits of the Great Abbots of Ngor: The Memorial or Death Anniversary Thangka (dus thang)

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Appendix A:

The Memorial Thangka of Drangti Penchen Namkha Pelzang,

the 13th Abbot of Ngor

[This is a post that was first uploaded as a draft to my Academia.edu account in November 2022.]

The Tibetan art collection of the Museo d’Arte Orientale, Turin, contains a large portrait of a Tibetan lama (Fig. 1; 161 x 133 cm) who was previously identified as the founder of Ngor monastery, Ngorchen Künga Zangpo (Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang po, 1382–1456).1 However, the long inscription in the red bottom strip of the thangka clarifies the identity of the portrayed lama as Drangti Penchen Namkha Pelzang (Brang ti Paṇ chen Nam mkha’ dpal bzang, 1535–1602), the 13th abbot of Ngor (two tenures: 1579–1582/83 and 1590–1595), and also reveals that it was commissioned as a memorial thangka. In addition, the thangka itself exhibits the typical characteristics of a memorial thangka, which I have outlined in the main study of this Appendix A.2

Fig. 1. After Ht/73.D

The two-line inscription written in gold begins with a versified praise of Namkha Pelzang (in four metrical lines of nine syllables each) including a play on words of his name by interweaving the four syllables it comprises. The following passage, which is partly worn, identifies the portrayed master by providing his name in Tibetanised Sanskrit as Mahāpaṇḍita Gaganaśrībhadra (i.e., Paṇḍita chen po Nam mkha’ dpal bzang). It also clarifies that the thangka was commissioned by Sönam Sherap (bSod nams shes rab), the attendant (nye gnas) of Namkha Pelzang, and the Tartsé Labrang (Thar rtse bla brang), which was one of the four main lama palaces of Ngor. Namkha Pelzang was the first abbot from the Drangti family who was associated with that lama palace, which would after him be successively headed by members of his family.

The inscription continues with some aspirational prayers. The first makes the aspiration that through the wholesome action (“root of virtue”) of commissioning the thangka, the last intentions of Namkha Pelzang may be fulfilled. This typical phrasing reveals that the thangka was commissioned after the death of Namkha Pelzang and most likely as one of the religious objects produced as part of his funeral ceremonies.

This assumption can be confirmed by the biography of Namkha Pelzang, which was written by the same attendant as recorded in the thangka’s inscription, Sönam Sherap. In this biography we read that Namkha Pelzang passed away at age 67 in the eleventh month of 1602,3 and that the production of religious objects as part of his funeral ceremonies began on the seventeenth of the third month of 1603 and lasted until the third of the seventh month of that same year, when a three-day consecration ritual commenced. Among the objects that were produced at that time, the present thangka is also recorded as “a painted image, a thangka [to be displayed at Namkha Pelzang’s] memorial tea serving with the height of one storey of [Ngor’s] assembly hall.”4 The thangka can thus conclusively be identified as the memorial thangka of Namkha Pelzang to be shown on his annual (and maybe even monthly) death anniversary and its production can be dated to 1603.

The inscription itself ends with a colophon, the beginning of which is illegible. But the legible parts suggest that the inscription was composed by a certain Könchok Chöpel (dKon mchog chos ’phel).

The basic composition of the painting portrays Namkha Pelzang as the central figure shown in partial profile and surrounded by masters representing two lineages, who are arranged in the top, side, and bottom registers. The iconography of the masters depicted on the left side identifies them as representing the Lamdre (Lam ’bras) lineage of Ngor and that of those on the right as the lineage of the bodhisattva vow according to the Madhyamaka tradition. Unfortunately, none of these lineage masters is identified by an inscription.

The Lamdre lineage begins at the top centre with Vajradhara, proceeds to the end of the left row through Nairātmyā, Virūpa, Kāṇha, Ḍamarūpa, and Avadhūtipa. It drops down the left column with Gayadhara, Drokmi Lotsāwa Śākya Yeshé (’Brog mi Lo tsā ba Śākya ye shes, 993–1077?) and successive Sakya (Sa skya) masters until Ngorchen (number 20) and continues after him with two more Ngor abbots, before proceeding to the right in the bottom row with seven further Ngor abbots. In addition to depicting the lineage masters as minor figures, some masters are also placed into the central part of the painting. The upper corners show, with larger proportions than the other minor figures, Sachen Künga Nyingpo (Sa chen Kun dga’ snying po, 1092–1158) on the left and Sakya Paṇḍita on the right (1182–1251). The pair of white-clad Tibetan masters portrayed within the two outer lobes of the three-lobed backrest arch to the left and right of the central figure’s head represent Sachen’s sons, Loppön Sönam Tsemo (Slob dpon bSod nams rtse mo, 1142–1182) and Jetsün Drakpa Gyeltsen (rJe btsun Grags pa rgyal mtshan, 1147–1216). Namkha Pelzang himself, as the central figure, might possibly represent the last lineage master.5

The lineage of the bodhisattva vow according to the Madhyamaka tradition begins to the right of the top centre with Buddha Śākyamuni, proceeds rightwards until the end of the row through Mañjuśrī, Nāgārjuna, and two other Indian panḍītas, and descends down the right column through five further Indian panḍītas and six Tibetan masters. The five Sakya founding fathers shown within the Lamdre lineage—Sachen, Sönam Tsemo, Drakpa Gyeltsen, Sakya Paṇḍita, and Chögyel Pakpa (Chos rgyal ’Phags pa, 1235–1280)—have to be added to the bodhisattva vow lineage as well. If the depicted lineage is not shortened, the last two lineage master depicted at the bottom of the right column might be identified as Jangchup Tsemo (Byang chub rtse mo, 1303/15–1379/80) and Sharchen Yeshé Gyeltsen (Shar chen Ye shes rgyal mtshan, 1359–1406). From Sharchen the lineage would be expected to continue through Ngorchen and via the other Ngor abbots of the Lamdre lineage. Moreover, it appears possible that Namkha Pelzang, as the central figure, has to be considered as the last master of the lineage.6

The identify and role of the pair of figures shown below Sachen and Sakya Paṇḍita awaits further clarification.

In addition, three deities are depicted in the right corner of the bottom register that appear to be White Amitayus holding a long-life vase, the wealth deity Yellow Jambhala, and the protector Pañjaranātha Mahākāla.

Diagram Fig. 1

Compared to the other memorial thangkas that could be identified so far, the present one portraying Namkha Pelzang is the second oldest one and has some features similar to those of the oldest one from 1557. The latter is a special case because it portrays three Ngor abbots as central figures: Künga Wangchuk (Kun dga’ dbang phyug, 1424–1478), the 4th abbot, Gorampa Sönam Senggé (Go rams pa bSod nams seng ge, 1429–1489), the 6th abbot, and Könchok Lhündrup (dKon mchog lhun grub, 1497–1557), the 10th abbot. All three having died on a twenty-first day (yet all of different months and years), the painting commemorates the death anniversary of all three of them.7 The similarities between these two memorial thangkas include the depiction of the same two lineages surrounding the central figures (i.e., the lineage of the Lamdre and of the bodhisattva vow according to the Madhyamaka tradition), as well as the similar size of the two paintings: the oldest one with a size of 160 × 136 cm and the one portraying Namkha Pelzang with 161 x 133 cm.

Another distinctive feature of the present memorial thangka is the depiction of the central figure in partial profile, which is not found in any of the other clearly identified memorial thangkas. However, I have presented a portrayal of Ngorchen commissioned in 1520 by Lhachok Senggé (lHa mchog seng ge, 1468–1535), the 9th abbot of Ngor, as a possible memorial thangka, which would make it the oldest memorial thangka currently known.8 Interestingly, it has features in common with the present portrayal of Namkha Pelzang, further supporting its identification as a memorial thangka. For example, Ngorchen is depicted in partial profile, surrounded by the same two lineages, and the thangka has a similar size of 161.3 × 131.1 cm.

In addition to the typical characteristics of a memorial thangkas, the three oldest memorial thangkas—dating to 1520, 1557, and 1603—are thus similarly structured by the same two lineages arranged around the central figures, and have a similar size of about 160 × 130 cm.  

Inscription in Tibetan

༄༅། །སྭསྟི་བི་ཛ་ཡ། །ཐུགས་རྗེས་ནམ་ཡང་འགྲོ་བ་མི་གཏོང་ཞིང་། །གསུང་རབ་མཁའ་ལ་? མཁྱེན་? པའི་འོད་དཀར་གྱིས། །ཟབ་དོན་དཔལ་འབྱོར་བཟང་པོའི་སྣང་བ་ཅན། །ཡོངས་འཛིན་དམ་པའི་ཞབས་ལ་གུས་ཕྱག་འཚལ། རྒྱལ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་གཅིག་?ཏུ་འདུས་པའི་དོ་? [= མདོ་] བརྒྱུད [= རྒྱུད་] སྡེ? རྒྱ་མཚོའི་མངའ་བདག། □□ འཛིན་པའི་ □□ མཛད་ངེས་? པ་དྲུག་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་དང་དབྱེར་མ་མཆིས་པ། དྲིན་ཅན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་དོན་གྱི་སླད་དུ་མཚན་ནས་སྨོས་ཏེ་མཧཱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ག་ག་ན་ཤྲཱི་བྷ་དྲའི་སྐུ་འདྲ་མཐོང་བ་དོན་ལྡན་? འདི་ཉིད། ཉེ་གནས་བསོད་ནམས་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་གུས་པས་ཐར་རྩེ་བླ་བྲང་ནས་བཞེངས་? པའི་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་འདིས། དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་རྫོགས་པ་དང་། རྒྱལ་བའི་སྟན་ [= བསྟན་] པ་བཤད་? སྒྲུབ་ [ཡིག་ཕྲེང་གཉིས་པ་] དང་ཐོས་བསམ་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མི་ཉམས་ཤིང་གོང་ནས་གོང་དུ་འཕེལ་ཞིང་རྒྱས་པ་དང་། ཕ་མས་ཐོག་དྲངས་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུད་ལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་གཟིགས་པ་འཇུག་པ་དང་། བདག་སོགས་གདུལ་བྱར་གྱུར་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་འདི་ནས་གཟུང་? སྟེ་? བྱང་ཆུབ་མ་ཐོབ་གྱི་བར་? དུ་? རྗེས་སུ་གཟུང་? དུ་གསོལ?། □□□ མཆོག། རིག་གནས་ཀུན་ལ་མི་འཇིག་སྤོབས་པ་ཅན། རྣམ་དཔྱོད་དང་ལྡན་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཆོས་འཕེལ་གྱིས། ཁྱིམ་? ཞག་ ཉེར་གཅིག་ □ ལ་གྲུབ་? འདི་མཚར། །དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་དང་ཡི་དམ་ལྷ། ཆོས་སྲུངས་ནོར་ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག། །མངྒ་ལཾ། བྷ་ཝནྟུ།། །།

Inscription in Transliteration

@@| |swasti bi dza ya| |thugs rjes nam yang ’gro ba mi gtong zhing| |gsung rab mkha’ la? mkhyen? pa’i ’od dkar gyis| |zab don dpal ’byor bzang po’i snang ba can| |yongs ’dzin dam pa’i zhabs la gus phyag ’tshal| rgyal ba thams cad kyi thugs rje gcig? tu ’dus pa’i do? [= mdo] brgyud [= rgyud] sde? rgya mtsho’i mnga’ bdag| □□ ’dzin pa’i □□ mdzad nges? pa drug pa rdo rje ’chang dang dbyer ma mchis pa| drin can rtsa ba’i bla ma don gyi slad du mtshan nas smos te mahā paṇḍi ta ga ga na shrī bha dra’i sku ’dra mthong ba don ldan? ’di nyid| nye gnas bsod nams shes rab kyis gus pas thar rtse bla brang nas bzhengs? pa’i dge ba’i rtsa ba ’dis| dpal ldan bla ma dam pa’i thugs dgongs rdzogs pa dang| rgyal ba’i stan [= bstan] pa bshad? sgrub [second line] dang thos bsam gyi sgo nas mi nyams shing gong nas gong du ’phel zhing rgyas pa dang| pha mas thog drangs sems can thams cad kyi rgyud la ye shes kyi gzigs pa ’jug pa dang| bdag sogs gdul byar gyur pa thams cad ’di nas gzung? ste? byang chub ma thob gyi bar? du? rjes su gzung? du gsol?/ □□□ mchog/ rig gnas kun la mi ’jig spobs pa can/ rnam dpyod dang ldan dkon mchog chos ’phel gyis/ khyim? zhag nyer gcig □ la grub? ’di mtshar/ /dkon mchog gsum dang yi dam lha/ chos srungs nor lha rnams kyi bkra shis shog/ /mangga laṃ/ bha wantu// //; emphasis added. A square “□” indicates one illegible syllable, “□□” about two illegible syllables, and “□□□” about three or more illegible syllables.

Endnotes

  1. See Santarelli 2009: 343 (no. 11). See also https://www.maotorino.it/en/archivio-catalogo/kun-dga-bzang-po/ (accessed 30.05.2024). ↩︎
  2. See Heimbel 2021. ↩︎
  3. See bSod nams shes rab, Nam mkha’ dpal bzang gi rnam thar (fol. 25a2–5). See also Sangs rgyas phun tshogs, Ngor gyi gdan rabs (fol. 17a3–b1). ↩︎
  4. See bSod nams shes rab, Nam mkha’ dpal bzang gi rnam thar (fol. 27a3–b1): […] bris sku dus ja thang sku ’du khang gi thog tshad ma| […]. The memorial thangka is also mentioned in Ngor’s abbatial history; see Sangs rgyas phun tshogs, Ngor gyi gdan rabs (fol. 17b3–4): […] lam ’bras dang| lam zab kyi kha skong| sku rten dus thang gsung rten bka’ ’bum pu sti gsum| […]. ↩︎
  5. After Drokmi Lotsāwa the depiction of the lineage seems to omit Setön Künrik (Se ston Kun rig, 1025–1122) and continues with Zhangtön Chöbar (Zhang ston Chos ’bar, 1053–1135). This omission would also explain Ngorchen’s position in the lineage as number 20 instead of his usual position as number 21. See Heimbel 2021: 320ff. ↩︎
  6. On the bodhisattva vow lineages, see Heimbel 2021: 322–323, 350–351. ↩︎
  7. See Heimbel 2021: 310–311, 317, 318–323. ↩︎
  8. See Heimbel 2021: 348–352. ↩︎

Bibliography

Works in Tibetan
Tshogs bshad bla ma’i rnam thar = De bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi bgrod pa gcig pa’i lam chen gsung ngag rin po che’i bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar. Vols. 2–3 (glegs bam gnyis pa, glegs bam gsum pa). Block-print from sDe dge.

Sangs rgyas phun tshogs (1649–1705). Ngor gyi gdan rabs = dPal e waṃ chos ldan gyi gdan rabs nor bu’i phreng ba. In Lam ’bras Tshogs bśad: The Sa-skya-pa teachings of the path and the fruit, according to the Ṅor-pa transmission. As arranged by ’Jam-dbyaṅs Blo-gter-dbaṅ-po and his successors and incorporating other texts transmitting the lineage through the present Ṅor and Sa-skya systems. Reproduced from prints from the Sde-dge blocks from the library of the Ven. Klu-sdiṅs Mkhan Rin-po-che of Ṅor. 6 vols. Sa-skya Lam ’bras Literature Series, vols. 22–27. Dehra Dun, U.P.: Sakya Centre, 1985, vol. 4 (ya), 1a–26b / 1–52.

bSod nams shes rab (fl. 16th/17th century). Nam mkha’ dpal bzang gi rnam thar = Nam mkha’ dpal bzang po’i rnam par thar pa byin rlabs myur du ’jug pa’i pho nya. In Tshogs bshad bla ma’i rnam thar, vol. 3 (ga), 1a–28a6.

Works in European Languages
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. Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, vol. 1, 301–379.

Ht/73.D = https://gestione.fondazionetorinomusei.it/media/opere/ht73.jpg (accessed 30.05.2024).

Santarelli, Cristina. 2009. “Tibetan art collection at the Museo d’arte orientale, Turin.” Music in Art 34/1–2: 337–345.