Gyelrong, Amdo Region, Eastern Tibet
18th century
Gyelrong, Amdo Region, Eastern Tibet
18th century
The changing understanding of an object is an interesting part of its story. Scholar Samten Karmay in his 2015 study Bonpo Painting of Protector Deities has re-identified this painting since he first studied it in 2006 for the Rubin Museum Exhibition, “Bon: The Magic Word” (https://rubinmuseum.org/events/exhibitions/bon-the-magic-word/).This painting, unusual in size and composition, depicts deities from the text “Protector Deitiesof the ‘Dur Rite” (’dur gsas lha srung) of Bon, Tibet’s indigenous religion. The iconography of the deities in the painting closely corresponds with this text, related to particular funerary rituals.These rites are required when an unnatural death, such as by violence, occurs. This is the only known painting of its kind thus far identified.The text provides a likely context for the creation of this painting. It is said to have been a Bonr evealed treasure text (terma) discovered in a cave in Gyelrong in northeastern Tibet. Internal textual evidence, such as colophons within the same volume also reference the Gyelrong area and the Amdo region, as well as name persons active in the revival of the Bon tradition in Gyelong in the eighteenth century. Moreover, this ritual is not widely known outside of the area.In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Gyelrong was a flourishing center of the Bonreligious tradition and artistic activity. Stylistically, the overall lightness of the color palette of this painting along with a dark blue sky that suddenly transitions to blank canvas and the subtleshading of the clouds and figures is consistent with paintings from Gyelong and nearby southern Amdo and northern Kham regions. Close looking rewards the viewer with many inventive and imaginative details such as figures clothed in vulture feathers, yak and tiger skins, but also rainbows, fire, and water, and wearing animals as hats. It is mainly in the Bon tradition that indigenous Tibetan animals and other aspects of the natural world are so prominently featured.
Buddhist practitioners in some traditions believe that cutting through ordinary perceptions that keep us in the endless cycle of death and rebirth, known as samsara, can create a powerful and enhanced divine identity that leads to enlightenment.
Prescribed practices that carry symbolic meaning and value within a specific tradition and are intended to attain a desired outcome. Rituals are usually done as part of a ceremony or regular routine.
A geometrically shaped tool used for meditation and visualization in Buddhist practice. It is a representation of the palace of a deity and the Buddhist conception of the cosmos.
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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