This painting depicts Wangchuk Dorje, the Ninth Black Hat Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. A partly effaced inscription suggests that this painting was executed during the Ninth Karmapa’s lifetime, which is also supported by a small visual clue in the painting’s background. Just over the right shoulder of the central figure a monumental image of the Buddha can be seen unfurled on a mountainside. This is a depiction of a famous appliqué scroll of Buddha Shakyamuni, which was made at the Karmapa’s home monastery, Tsurphu, for the Ninth Karmapa in 1585.The Encampment (Gardri) artistic style, a popular painting tradition that combined Tibetan and Chinese aesthetics, took shape in the court of the Ninth Karmapa, and while no examples of the early Encampment style painted by the tradition’s founder, the great artist Namkha Tashi, have as of yet been identified, this painting is as close as we can come for now. Stylistically it marks a distinct departure from the previous tradition of depicting the Karma Kagyu School lineage. It has a more open composition and naturalistic sense of receding space, a trait that characterizes later Encampment paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Artwork Details

Title
Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje (1555–1603)
Dimensions
51 × 34 1/2 in. (estimated)
Medium
Pigments on cloth
Origin
Central Tibet
Classification(s)
paintings
Date
ca. 1590
Credit Line
Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Purchased from the Collection of Navin Kumar, New York
Object number
C2005.20.2
Bibliography
Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style
HAR Number
90005
Published references
*Lucic, Karen. Embodying Compassion in Buddhist Art: Image, Pilgrimage, Practice. New York: The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 2015. Fig. 30; Pp. 34.* Jackson, David P. Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009. Fig. 5.13; Pp. 101-102, 251.* Smith, Caron. "Building the Rubin Museum of Art Collection." Orientations 37, no.2 (March 2006): p. 116.* Pratapaditya, Pal. Tibetan Paintings (New York: Ravi Kumar/Sotheby Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1984). Plate 90.* Pratapaditya, Pal. Tibetan Paintings Chicago: Ravi Kumar, 2000. Plate 90.* Van Alphen, J. Collection Highlights: Rubin Museum of Art. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2014. Pp. 128-129* Debreczeny, Karl. The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa. New York: The Rubin Museum of Art, 2012, pp. 259-260. (Fig. 9.9)* Debreczeny, Karl. "What Constitutes "the Hand of the Master"?Paintings Attributed by Inscription to Si tu Pa. chen" PIATS 2010: Proceedings of the Twelfth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Vancouver, BC, 2010. * Debreczeny, Karl. "Lama Patron and Artist: The Great Situ Panchen" Arts of Asia 40, no. 2 (2010): 82-92. Fig. 4.* Debreczeny, Karl. Palace Museum Journal 2011, 101-139. Fig. 37, p. 134. * Jackson, David Paul. A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet : Khyentse Chenmo of Gongkar. Rubin Museum of Art (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2016). Fig. 2.16: pp. 60-61* Kang, Gesang Yixi. Zang chuan Gamagazi hua pai tang ka yi shu (karma sgar bris lugs kyi thang ka sgyu rtsal). Chengdu Shi: Sichuan mei shu chu ban she, 2012. Xia juan: p. 266* Kang, Gesang Yixi. Gama Gazi huapai tangka (karma sgar bris lugs kyi thang ga). Beijing: Wenu chubanshe, 2015: p. 106* Skal-bzang-ye-shes, and Tshe-ring-?gyur-med. Zang zu mei shu ji cheng (bod kyi mdzes rtsal kun btus). Chengdu: Sichuan min zu chu ban she, 2015: p. 105-106

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Lineage

Concepts

The transmission of teachings from one generation to the next, from teacher to student, traced all the way back to the Buddha without interruption. A complete lineage is essential in Tantric Buddhist practices as it makes the blessings of the teaching more powerful.

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Transmission

Concepts

The passing down of authentic Buddhist teachings from a teacher to a disciple or student, often in the form of a text in a ritualistic context.

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Legendary and Historical Humans

Figure Type

Himalayan art includes portraits of legendary and historical humans, including accomplished religious teachers (lamas), the Buddha’s original disciples (arhats), and spiritually accomplished tantric masters (mahasiddhas).

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Tibetan Regions

Region

Today, Tibetans primarily inhabit the Tibetan Plateau, situated between the Himalayan mountain range and the Indian subcontinent to the west, Chinese cultural regions to the east, and Mongolian cultural regions to the northeast. During the 7th to 9th century, Tibetan rulers expanded their empire across Central Asia, and established Buddhism as the state religion.

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