Details
Image 2738 x 19 in. (69.5 x 46.3 cm.)
Literature
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24521.
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Lot Essay

The yidam Chakrasamvara, also known as 'Demchog' to the Bhutanese and Tibetans, is depicted here atop an ethereal and animal-filled landscape, surrounded by a retinue of five fierce dakinis (Tib: khandro), including the sow-headed Vajravarahi at bottom center. Floating on open lotuses in the top left and right corners of the composition are a Bhutanese lama and the Tibetan saint and Kagyu lineage holder, Milarepa.

Above a gathering of deer at the top of the composition is the religious authority of Bhutan, the Zhabdrung, leader of the Drukpa Kagyu state religious tradition. As the figure is not labeled by inscription, this particular incarnation cannot be identified. For another example of this distinctly Bhutanese style, compare the current work with another nineteenth-century Bhutanese painting depicting Padmasambhava, Guru Drakmar in the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. C2006.42.9, Himalayan Art Resource item no. 89174).

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