Appliqué Artistic Tradition and the War God Begtse’s Significance in Mongolia

This thangka of Begtse (also known as Jamsran) is a work by Jügdür (late 19th–early 20th century), a prominent artist of Yekhe Khüriye.1 That city, now called Ulaanbaatar and currently Mongolia’s capital, was the main seat of the ruling Jibzundamba reincarnations (Khutugtus). It was also an important cultural center and a base for many eminent artists. Jügdür was in the Zoogai aimag of Yekhe Khüriye’s thirty aimags (monastic units).2 The Eighth Jibzundamba Bogd Gegeen (1869–1924) commissioned Jügdür to paint a new map of Yekhe Khüriye; several other images by Jügdür are also extant, including a set of Three Deities of Longevity and some drawings. 

Begtse is a popular worldly protector deity in Tibet and Mongolia. Practices and texts including this protector date to the eleventh century in Tibet.3 Images of Begtse are especially widespread in Mongolia. Begtse’s name means “hidden coat of mail”; he is also known by the name Jamsran (from Tibetan Jamsing), meaning “brother and sister.” As a worldly protector, he is worshipped as residing within this realm and occupies the position of war god.4 He resides in his Marutse cemetery abode in the northeast and is surrounded by a group of wrathful deities, known as “butchers who wield swords,” who are often depicted in Begtse images, as evidenced in a contemporaneous thangka from Yekhe Khüriye (fig. 2). Begtse rules as lord over demons and spirits, and vanquishes all the enemies and obstacles that keep devotees away from enlightenment.

As one of ten protector deities, Begtse manifests in a wrathful form and stands on a sun disc. With two hands and one face, garbed in armor, he sports a golden mirror on his chest that displays the Sanskrit seed syllable bram for recitation of his mantras and prayers; he wears a garland made of fifty freshly severed human heads and a crown with five skulls, which represent the five defilements on the path to liberation. He tramples the corpse of a horse with his right foot and the corpse of a human with his left foot. His hands hold attributes: a sword with a handle in a shape of a black scorpion in his right hand, and the heart and kidneys of enemies of the faith in his left hand. He also clutches a bow and arrow, a trident, and a banner in the bend of his left elbow. As is typical for Mongolian appliqué thangkas, jewels, such as coral beads, are used extensively in this thangka. In the textual description, Begtse is standing atop a copper mountain that emerges from the “lake formed by the blood of men and horses”;5 here he is surrounded by the majestic flames dominating the entire composition. 

Above Begtse, two teachers––the First Jibzundamba Zanabazar (1635–1723) and Tsongkhapa (1357–1419)––are depicted in the two corners of the top register, alluding to the importance of the Geluk tradition’s teachings and the Jibzundambas in Mongolia in general, and for this production in particular, as it was most certainly made under the patronage of the Bogd Gegeen (who ruled as Bogd Khan 1911–1924). This Begtse also has attendants on both sides: to his right is his son, the Red Master of Life, holding a spear and a noose with a human corpse, and riding a gray wolf;6 to Begtse’s left is his sister and consort Rigpai Lhamo, or Goddess of Life, whose head is red and body is blue, and who holds a sword and a ritual dagger (purba) in her hands and rides a bear biting into a human corpse. There are auspicious symbols, such as jewels and elephant tusks symmetrically distributed on both sides of a plate with offerings of the Five Senses to Begtse.

Appliqué Thangka Tradition and Production 

The technique of appliqué was held in special favor in Mongolia, and it has remained a favorite traditional medium used by nomadic artists and craftspeople since early times. Carpets and rugs, handmade with felt and decorated with appliqué and embroidery, were used by nomads in their portable dwellings (known as yurts), and some extant early examples date to Xiongnu nomads (third century BCE–first century CE).7 During the Mongol imperial period, silk and appliqué were also used in making lavish tapestries, royal garments (fig. 3), imperial portraits, and Buddhist images, as evidenced in a splendid Vajrabhairava thangka and in recent archeological findings. In Buddhist monasteries in Inner Asia, appliqué thangkas were often made in various sizes, and remarkable examples of colossal appliqué thangkas still exist in Himalayan art. 

A team of artists, including women, were involved in the production of these monumental thangka scrolls. As Yekhe Khüriye artists reminisce,8 Jügdür was also among the artists who produced other appliqué thangkas, such as a colossal Thirty-Five Buddhas of Confession, one of the most ambitious projects of Yekhe Khüriye, given its grandiose dimensions (fig. 4).9 The production of these monumental appliqué images typically involved a team led by a master artist.10 The master artist, usually a male, created the drawing based on the system of proportions and iconographic details; his team, often including women, would cut Chinese silks and brocade pieces into shapes, then render them based on the drawing and stitch them to create the composition. Artists fastened gold-wrapped horsehair to the appliqué with small stitches (known as gold couching) to create the details.

In Mongolia, appliqué thangkas were lavishly encrusted with jewels, such as seed pearls, turquoise pieces, and coral beads (fig. 5).11 In Mongolia, the medium of appliqué was used most exclusively for monumental thangkas, and as this image of Begtse demonstrates, the artists kept the compositions simple (fig. 6), with the main deity dominating the space and the top and bottom registers either absent or kept at minimum scale. Colossal appliqué tapestries were often unfolded outdoors and hung on mountain sides and exterior monastery walls (fig. 7) during important Buddhist rituals (fig. 8) and celebrations attended by the entire community, such as the Lunar New Year, the Great Prayer Festival, and the tsam masked dance ritual.

Location and the Significance of Begtse in Yekhe Khüriye

In Yekhe Khüriye, monumental thangkas, such as this Begtse, hung in the Jibzundamba’s Batu-Tsagan Assembly Hall (Tsogchin Dugang), and other temples. According to the Mongolian art historian Nyam-Osoryn Tsultem, the Begtse examined here was in Kalachakra Temple within the Yellow Palace, the central compound of the main temples in Yekhe Khüriye.12 Regular rituals for Begtse were conducted monthly here and at the symbolic ger (yurt) known as Baruun Örgöö, raised by Abatai Khan (1554–1588) (fig 9).13 Baruun Örgöö was a large yurt, uninhabited but of a great ritual significance for the descendants of Chinggis Khan (ca. 1162–1227) (an ancestry known as the “golden kinship”), who included Zanabazar’s family of Tüshiyetü Khan, Abatai’s great-grandson. Initially kept at Erdeni Juu Monastery, founded by Abatai Khan in 1586, this ger became part of Yekhe Khüriye, where it was maintained as a sanctuary to worship the ancestors and maintain the fire for the Mongol people day and night, overseen by a group of designated monks.14 These monks, who were themselves part of golden kinship, were appointed by Tüshiyetü Khan to conduct the rituals of Begtse three times every month in accordance with other rituals to Begtse simultaneously performed at the Jibzundamba’s Assembly Hall in the Yellow Palace. 

Such devotion to Begtse’s worship in Yekhe Khüriye went back to the Second Jibzundamba (1724–1757). Believed to be a special protector for the Mongols, the Second Jibzundamba, the legend goes, was miraculously saved from lightning by Jamsran, who showed himself to the reincarnation from the Baruun Örgöö.15 Even the first Mongolian revolutionaries, who stood up to fight for Mongolia’s independence from the Qing Empire in 1911, came to receive blessings from Jamsran at Baruun Örgöö. In 1912, shortly after Mongolia became independent, the Bogd Khan and the Mongol nobles performed another special ritual to Begtse, vowing their service to the newly independent state before an image of Jamsran. One wonders if this monumental appliqué thangka could be that special image of Begtse.16