Beginning in the fifteenth century there was a gradual shift in Tibetan art from an Indic-centered aesthetic toward a more Chinese-centered one. This shift reflects the disappearance of Buddhism in India and Tibet’s increasingly close cultural, economic, and political ties to its northeastern Mongolian and Chinese neighbors.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, newly emerging Tibetan painting styles in Central Tibet were named after famous indigenous masters and artistic centers rather than adopted traditions such as Eastern Indian, Kashmiri, or Nepalese. These new styles, including the Menri, Khyenri, and Gardri, were known for their integration of Chinese-inspired landscapes and corresponding shift to increasingly green and blue palettes of malachite and azurite.
Select each work to learn more.
Gongkar Chode Monastery, U Province, Central Tibet
ca. 1659-1671
This painting of the great Indian tantric master Virupa captures the most iconic scene from his unconventional life as a yogi, when he stopped the sun in the sky to avoid paying his bar tab.
This work is an example of the Khyenri painting style, founded by the painter and sculptor Khyentse Chenmo (active ca. 1450s–1490s). Much like the contemporaneous Menri tradition, the Khyenri style replaced Nepalese-inspired formal red backgrounds with Chinese-inspired landscapes of intense blues and greens, while maintaining Indic models for the figures. Khyentse Chenmo’s art was known for its delicate and differentiated facial features, realism and fine attention to detail, perfectly round halos, and impressive depiction of wrathful deities.
According to inscriptions on the back, this painting was commissioned in memory of a seventeenth- century teacher of Gongkar Chode Monastery by his student. Gongkar Chode is the most famous site where Khyentse Chenmo was active and is still home to wall paintings recorded to be created by the master. This painting was consecrated by a known abbot of Zhalu Monastery, allowing us to closely date it.
Learn more about Gongkar Chode Monastery and the artist Khyentse Chenmo
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