**Originally Listed At $800**

Central Asia, Tibet, ca. early to mid-20th century CE. A fine thangka featuring a painted obverse scene of the Shakyamuni Buddha seated atop a tiered lotus base. Buddha wears a flowing orange and teal garment while holding a small object in his left hand, and his body is surrounded by a radiating coronal halo and a teal nimbus behind his head. The mountainous scene behind Buddha is filled with greenery, snow-capped peaks, and an azure lake, with two standing Buddhas in the lower corners, and two seated arhats in the upper corners. The painted scene is covered by a thin silk veil and presented atop a blue silk panel that can be rolled up for transport. Size (thangka): 19" W x 29.9" H (48.3 cm x 75.9 cm); (silk panel): 28" W x 43" H (71.1 cm x 109.2 cm)

In Mahayana Buddhism, an idea developed that the historic Buddha was only one of a series of buddhas. The period of Shakyamuni, seen here at center, would last 5,000 years, until the year 4500, when the new buddha, Maitreya, would arrive. This concept kept evolving in Buddhism, and the number of buddhas grew to series of 8, 9, 24, 35, 52, 1,000 and various other numbers - the symbolic value being infinity.

Provenance: private Culver City, California, USA collection; ex-Artemis Gallery, September 13, 2020; ex-private southern California, USA collection, started in the 1980s

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#176965

Small holes, light fraying, and staining to silk veil, with minor fading, abrasions, and desiccation to applied pigment, and fraying to some peripheries, otherwise intact and very good. Nice remains of original pigment and craquelure across painted surfaces.