46 - ASIAN ART SOCIETY
09
Konchog Bang
Tibet 18th century Ground mineral pigments on cloth 72 cm x 48 cm Provenance: Private UK collection Publication: Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart. org), item no. 88593. Price on request
Object Presented by: Kapoor Galleries M.: + 1 (212) 794-2300 E.: info@kapoors.com W: www.kapoors.com
An important text narrated by the great Indian pandit Atisha explicating the essential practices of the early Kadam tradition of Tibetan Buddhism describes Konchog Bang as an Indian prince. Therein, Atisha describes his foremost disciple as an incarnation of the Great Compassionate One, Avalokiteshvara, and Kongchog Bang’s story is one of his previous lives. After refusing to marry the wife his father selected for him, prince Kongchog Bang encounters a Buddhist saint in the sky before him who advises him to go to the land of Uddiyana where he will find the dakini Sangwa Yeshe and bring her home as his betrothed. After a treacherous journey riddled with demons he must battle he finds the dakini in the company of Guru Vimala and thousands of other dakini. There, he learns he will be reincarnated as Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo and Sangwa Yeshe will take the form of his Chinese wife. The Secret Wisdom dakini (labeled ‘Sangwa Yeshe’ in Tibetan) floats in the upper right corner of the composition and Guru Vimala (labeled ‘Lama Drima-med’) floats in the upper left holding a vajra and a bell. An inscription in Tibetan Ume script on the back of the painting makes reference to both figures: By the compassionate moon rays of Vimala Guru and Guhya Jnana, Nurturing the lily garden, Ripening the beings of the land of Uddiyana; To the One Lord Konchog Bang I pray! (translation by Jeff Watt) The present painting comes from a well-known thirteen-painting compositional design representing Dalai Lamas and their pre-incarnations. The original designs took the form of woodblock images which were likely created at Narthang, where the thirteenth century Kadam Legbam (the aforementioned source of Konchog Bang’s identity), which began as an oral teaching, was recorded by the ninth abbot Khenchen Nyima Gyeltsen (1225-1305). However, this painting is not only a display of that standard iconography, but of the careful hand of a seasoned thangka painter whose skill is apparent. Compare the present painting to a nineteenth-century iteration of this composition in the Rubin Museum of Art (acc. C2006.66.332), which lacks the nuances of color and the capturing clouds displayed in the present composition.
