TIBET, 16TH CENTURY

This engaging portrait depicts a Tibetan teacher bestowing wisdom with traditional abhaya mudra with his proper-right hand, perhaps from the pecha or religious text he holds in in his proper-left. An inscription on the back of his stepped throne identifies him as Gelukpa lama, Sonam Chokyi Langpo. This fifteenth-century figure, who in his lifetime was recognized as founder of an important Gelukpa hermitage in Central Tibet called Wensa Monastery, was posthumously recognized in the Tashilhunpo religious tradition as a Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama, a political and religious incarnation lineage first identified by the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1667, is understood to be an emanation of Buddha Amitabha. Those recognized in their lifetimes acted as the abbots of Tashilhunpo Monastery of Shigatse in Tsang Province (Central Tibet) and were often deeply involved in Tibet-China relations.
This rich, gilt-bronze is particularly warm in both the material sense, as a product of the copper-heavy alloy and bright gilding, and in the aesthetic, due to to the artists’ modeling with soft facial features and lifelike hands. Gilded portraits like this were commonly made in the sixteenth century and thereafter. Based on the specific facial features and body type, it is likely that this was a portrait created soon after the hierarch’s death by someone familiar with the deceased.
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24525.