Carried out in an Eastern Tibetan style showing the influence of the Situ Panchen style into the late nineteenth century, the present painting depicts the famous and eccentric teacher, Togden Shakya Shri (1853-1919). With his potential overlooked at an early age, Shakya Shri removed himself from the monastic system and eventually achieved an enormous following thanks to his honest, playful, and insightful ability to bring the two systems of Mahamudra and Dzogchen together into a single system of understanding. As a famous teacher in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he was contemporaneous to the budding development of photography, and his likeness was captured several times throughout his life; the present painting closely compares to the known images of Shakya Shri and was clearly made by someone who knew him, with the handprint on the back suggesting it was commissioned by a close follower.
Born in 1853 in Kham, Shakya Shri was apparently a quiet and particularly compassionate child. As a young man, he entered the monastery of Drugu as a novice and cook, where he was mocked for his appearance and lowly status; despite this, he was fully ordained as a monk and was trained in Mahamudra by the Sixth Khamtrul, Tenpai Nyima and in Dzogchen by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Eventually, Shakya Shri gave up his vows and left Drugu, settling in a cave with his wife and practicing as a yogi. His reputation was elevated when the Sixth Dechen Chokhor Yongdzin, Sheja Kunkhyen, who was camped nearby, had a vision emanating from Shakya Shri’s cave and after discussion with him, realized his true potential. He was also held in high esteem by the famous teacher, Ju Mipam Gyatso. As his reputation grew, people from all over the region, both commoners and monastic elites, came to learn from the master in informal camps with ascetic-like conditions. Throughout his life, Shakya Shri traveled through Kham, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal, and whilst in the latter location, even sponsored the restorations of Swayambhunath and Boudanath stupas, for which photographic evidence still exists.