This large and impressive embroidered textile depicts the goddess, Ushnishavijaya, a deity associated with longevity and one popular across all sects of Mahayana Buddhism. The goddess sits at center of the textile on a double-lotus base holding a variety of implements, including a mala, arrow, and damaru (drum) in her right hands and a parasol, bow, and amrita vase in her left hands, with the central hands pressed together in anjalimudra in front of her chest. Her three faces are backed by an encompassing partite nimbus, in a rich landscape of scrolling foliage and billowing clouds. Amidst the latter, the Sixteen Arhats and the patron, Hvashang, and the attendant, Dharmatala, are gathered in attendance to the deity. At the top of the composition, a jewel sitting on a pillow is worshipped by heavenly attendants.
Although the embroidery technique was utilized in Tibetan and Chinese religious textiles from at least the fifteenth century, it became more common during the Qing dynasty in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The technique was particularly successful for large images such as the present lot, and allowed for multiple colors and even gold thread and semi-precious stones to be worked into the image. While the colors of the present work are somewhat faded now, the stark white swathes of the main image of Ushnishavijaya, worked with gold thread, would have been resplendent against the dark blue of the ground and the reds of the arhats’ robes.
Another large embroidered thangka from the same series, depicting Avalokiteshvara, sold at Sotheby's New York 29 April 1993, lot 314.