EASTERN TIBET, KHAM PROVINCE, 17TH

Trailokyavijaya is a wrathful deity, often associated as a retinue figure in Tibetan art. Rarely is is he portrayed as a central deity in the Tibetan Buddhist context. In the present painting, Trailokyavijaya is depicted within two separate mandalas. In the upper mandala, the deity is surrounded with petals holding images of Uma-Maheshvara, the representation of Shiva and Parvati together. This relates to Trailokyavijaya's origins as an appropriation of the Hindu deity Tripurantaka, a manifestation of the god Shiva. This, as well, relates to Trailokyavijaya's common depiction trampling or subjugating Shiva and Parvati. The lower mandala represents Trailokyavijaya surrounded by petals of various Buddhas and other Hindu origin figures such as Brahma, Sarasvati, Indra and Ganapati (also known as Ganesha in the Hindu context).At center of the painting is a joyful representation of Ganapati, dancing with one foot upon his jewel spewing bandicoot, and snacking from a kapala in one of his several arms. To his right is the red-skinned Kurukulla, the "Goddess of Power," and to Ganapati's left, a red manifestation of Mahakala.
The painting embodies a syncretic Khamri painting style originating from the Derge region of Eastern Tibet and can be associated with the Ngor tradition. Earlier Ngor paintings from central Tibet were characterized by their adherence to a distinct Nepalese aesthetic, a style that the lineage patronized until the sixteenth century. The painting style of the present work, however, diverges from earlier conventions, adapting to portray its hierarchs in the verdant blues and greens of Chinese landscape painting.
The painting is inscribed:
སྭ་སྟི།
ངོ་མཚར་རྒྱུད་སྡེའི་རློང་ནས་ལེགས་འོངས་པའི་།
ངན་སོང་སྦྱོང་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཉིན་བྱེད་དབང་།
ངན་སོང་སྦྱོང་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཉིན་བྱེད་དབང་།
ལྷག་བསམ་འཛིན་མའི་ཁྱོན་འདིར་ཤར་པའི་དགེས།
མ་གྱུར་འགྲོ་བའི་སྒྲིབ་གཉིས་མུན་པའི་ཚོགས།
མིང་མཐར་གྱུར་ནས་སྤང་སོགས་པད་མོའི་ཚལ།
རབ་ཏུ་རྒྱས་ཏེ་དོན་གཉིས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཀྱི།
འབྲས་མཆོག་ཁྱབ་བདག་རྣམ་སྣང་ཆེན་པོ་ཡི།
གོ་འཕང་མྱུར་དུ་ཐོབ་པའི་བཀྲིས་ཤོག།
མངྒལ།

Swati (svāti) !

Emanating from the profound and wondrous Tantric teachings, definite goodness comes like the sun, the mandala that purifies the lower realms.

With the virtuous brilliance of illuminating this vast expanse of pure aspiration, may the host of darkness of the twofold obscurations of all mother sentient beings be completely dispelled, and may the sacred lotus grove of renunciation and liberation flourish boundlessly, effortlessly actualizing the twofold benefit.

May the supreme fruition, the boundless radiance of the great sovereign, be swiftly realized in its entirety, and may all be auspicious!

Mangalam!"

Christie's would like to thank Tian Chen, University of Oxford, for the translation of this inscription