Tibet. Distemper and gold on cloth. Finely painted, the central figures standing in alidhasana atop a lotus pedistal enveloped in a flaming mandorla with bright gilt detailing, all set within a mountainous landscape with colorful swirling clouds in a dark sky. The upper register with Tsongkhapa seated in the center flanked by the fourth Panchen Lama Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen and the fifth Panchen Lama Lobsang Yeshe, above two wrathful deities. The lower register with Palden Lhamo, Mahakala, Yama in union with Yami, and Vaisravana.

Provenance: From a European private collection.
Condition: Good condition with old wear, light soiling, fading, and minor creasing.

Dimensions: 44.4 x 29 cm

The wrathful Vajrabhairava is a yidam, a deity that presides over the great tantras of the highest yoga in Tibetan Buddhism. A guardian and destroyer of death, he is represented here with thirty-four arms brandishing an array of weapons, while his sixteen legs trample birds, dogs, and Hindu gods including the elephant-headed Ganesha. He embraces his consort Vajravetali, an animated corpse, in a yab-yum sexual embrace that alludes to a dualistic totality encompassing compassion and wisdom.

Vajrabhairava is the wrathful form of Manjushri and a revered meditational deity in the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the dominant religious power in Tibet in the seventeenth century. Vajrabhairava also became a prominent Buddhist icon in China under the Qing emperors, who maintained direct links with the dignitaries of the Gelugpa sect, including the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. He is worshipped for frightening away egotism and selfishness—the root of suffering—and in this true form reveals the awesome and terrifying nature of enlightenment.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related thangka depicting Vajrabhairava in union with Vajravetali on a dark ground surrounded by the same retinue as in the present lot, 38.5 x 15.1 cm, dated ca.1750-1800, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, accession number IS.13-1969. Compare a related Chinese thangka depicting the same subject, dated to the 18th century, in the Field Museum of Natural History, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 54486.