Great Tibetan Patron and Designer of Buddhist Art in Kham

David Jackson and Karl Debreczeny
Larger than life-size lama seated on golden throne before followers, altar, and wrathful deity

Portrait of Situ Panchen (1700–1774), from a Pelpung set of Masters of the Combined Kagyu Lineages; Pelpung Monastery, Derge, Kham region, eastern Tibet; ca. 1760s; pigments on cotton; 38½ × 23½ in. (97.8 × 59.7 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; C2003.29.2 (HAR 65279)

Portrait of Situ Panchen

Pelpung Monastery, Derge, Kham region, eastern Tibet ca. 1760s

Portrait of Situ Panchen (1700–1774), from a Pelpung set of Masters of the Combined Kagyu Lineages; Pelpung Monastery, Derge, Kham region, eastern Tibet; ca. 1760s; pigments on cotton; 38½ × 23½ in. (97.8 × 59.7 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; C2003.29.2 (HAR 65279)

Summary

Scholar David Jackson and art historian Karl Debreczeny examine a contemporary portrait of Situ Panchen, a lama, scholar, and artist who revitalized the arts of southeastern Tibet in the eighteenth century. Leader of the Karma Kagyu school of Buddhism at a time of its near-eclipse, Situ Panchen was trained from an early age in aesthetics and wrote widely about the arts. As an artist and patron, he drew inspiration from Chinese, Tibetan, and Indian aesthetics to create the distinctive New Encampment style of painting.

Key Terms

Avadana

Avadana is a genre of narrative Buddhist literature found in the Mahayana sutras, and one category of Buddhist teachings. Together with the jataka stories that narrate the past lives of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, these stories typically demonstrate the workings of karma, or cause and effect, and how the protagonists’ past actions lead to their present experiences. Most Avadanas center on persons other than the Buddha, but they can relate to the Buddha as well.

Buddha Shakyamuni

Buddha Shakyamuni, or simply “The Buddha,” is an epithet for Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the Buddhist religion. While the exact dates of Siddhartha’s life are debated, scholars generally place him in the sixth to fifth century BCE. According to early Buddhist narratives, Siddhartha was born a prince of the Shakya clan in what is now northern India and southern Nepal. Choosing to leave his palace and family for a life as a religious ascetic, Siddhartha achieved enlightenment while meditating under the Bodhi Tree. Siddhartha spent the rest of his life as a wandering teacher, gathering disciples to form the early Buddhist monastic community (sangha). Buddha Shakyamuni is revered all over the Buddhist world today.

Kagyu

The Kagyu are a major Later Diffusion tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu trace their lineages back to the Mahasiddhas, the great tantric masters of medieval India. The Kagyu are known for their yogic practices, as well as the teaching of Mahamudra, or the “Great Seal.” The Kagyu tradition includes many different branches, such as the Karma, Drukpa, Drigung, Tselpa, Pakmodru, and others. The most influential leaders of the Karma Kagyu are the Karmapas, a tulku lineage associated with that Kagyu branch. In Bhutan, the Drukpa Kagyu tradition serves as the state religion. A follower of the Kagyu is called a Kagyupa.

patronage

A practice of hiring and commissioning artists to create works of art. In religious context patrons were often rulers, religious leaders, as well as ordinary people. (see also donor)

Tibetan Buddhism

Historically, Tibetan Buddhism refers to those Buddhist traditions that use Tibetan as a ritual language. It is practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Ladakh, and among certain groups in Nepal, China, and Russia and has an international following. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in two waves, first when rulers of the Tibetan Empire (seventh to ninth centuries CE), embraced the Buddhist faith as their state religion, and during the second diffusion (late tenth through thirteenth centuries), when monks and translators brought in Buddhist culture from India, Nepal, and Central Asia. As a result, the entire Buddhist canon was translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to become centers of intellectual, cultural, and political power. From the end of the twelfth century, Tibetans were exporting their own Buddhist traditions abroad. Tibetan Buddhism integrates Mahayana teachings with the esoteric practices of Vajrayana, and includes those developed in Tibet, such as Dzogchen, as well as indigenous Tibetan religious practices focused on local gods. Historically major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk.

Situ Panchen (1700–1774) was both a hierarch of the Karma tradition of and an important patron and artist, credited with reviving the court style of the known as the Encampment style (Gardri), which quickly became popular in his native Kham region in southeastern Tibet. This style is characterized by figures based on Indian aesthetic models of proportion placed in open, airy, blue-green landscapes largely inspired by Chinese court painting.

As Situ worked directly with artists, the painters of this work would have known him well enough to create an accurate likeness. The physical appearance of Situ Panchen in this painting (fig. 2), as a venerable gray-haired master with sunken features, tends to support a dating to the 1760s. The long-life goddess White above, with whom Situ had a special connection, was also included as a wish for the aged Situ Panchen’s continued longevity.

Head and shoulders of elderly lama wearing bejeweled red headdress before golden backrest and cloudy sky
Fig. 2.

Detail of Portrait of Situ Panchen showing face and hat; Pelpung Monastery, Kham region, eastern Tibet; Rubin Museum of Art; C2003.29.2 (HAR 65279)

Situ sits on an elaborately carved Chinese-inspired throne, wearing the badge of his office, a notched red hat emblazoned with three jewels. Behind Situ lies an open landscape with a minimally pigmented light-blue sky, featuring a flowing river, and two distant cloud-wreathed peaks, suggesting receding space. Above, a dragon emerges from the clouds. Craggy cliffs festooned with pine trees evoke the landscape of Situ’s home in Derge.

Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style

While the Encampment style was founded in the court of the Ninth Karmapa in the sixteenth century in central Tibet, most of what we know of this painting tradition belongs to its eighteenth-century revival fostered by Situ Panchen in eastern Tibet. Even more important to the history of Tibetan art than Situ Panchen’s role as a painter is his role as a patron and designer of paintings, many of which continue to be copied to this day. Situ’s tradition is one of the best documented of the major Tibetan painting traditions, in part because of the extensive writings that he left, including his autobiography and diaries, rare windows into his artistic intentions that detail the paintings he designed and commissioned, the names of the artists he worked with, and his iconographic and artistic sources. 

The Life of Situ Panchen

Situ Panchen was born in , a small but culturally significant kingdom at the heart of the southeastern Tibetan region of . Situ was born during a particularly volatile period in Tibet’s history. Several generations of inter-sectarian warfare had left his Karma Kagyu tradition in shambles, and in central Tibet the Ganden Podrang government was suppressing Karma Kagyu monasteries. However, some areas of eastern Tibet, like Derge, lay beyond the reach of central Tibetan rule and remained relatively open to other religious traditions and artistic developments.

In 1732 the two top hierarchs of the Karma Kagyu tradition suddenly died, and Situ Panchen was thrust at the age of thirty-three into the role of de facto regent of his tradition. Situ proved to be a brilliant polymath and charismatic leader, influential in many areas of cultural and institutional life in eighteenth-century Tibet. He made major contributions to the fields of painting, religion, literature, and medicine. 

A watershed in Situ’s religious, artistic, and political career took place in 1729 with the founding of his new monastic seat, Pelpung Monastery, in his birthplace of Derge, which became the artistic hub for the revival of the Encampment style. In 1726, as part of his request for permission to build this new , he offered a set of paintings of the Eight Great Tantric Adepts (mahasiddhas) to the Derge ruler Tenpa Tsering (1678–1738) (fig. 3). It is the first set that Situ is recorded to have painted and in many ways marks the beginning of his public life as an artistic and religious leader.

Fig. 3.

Ghantapa as one of the Eight Great Tantric Adepts; Kham region, eastern Tibet; 18th century; pigments on cotton; 19 × 13 in. (48.3 × 33 cm); The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Gift of John and Berthe Ford, 2008; 35.303 (HAR 73821); photograph courtesy The Walters Art Museum

Situ the Artist

Situ first learned iconographic proportions at age fifteen and soon thereafter was shown old Indian cast-metal figures by a temple steward, who introduced him to the traditional stylistic classifications of Buddhist metal sculpture. The steward pointed out different types of metal and characteristic shapes as he referenced one of the classic manuals on the evaluation of objects. Situ was thus initiated at a very young age into a Tibetan tradition of connoisseurship. From that time on he was able to evaluate the styles and quality of sacred objects, took pains to investigate the paintings and statues he came upon, and collected art. Situ could paint in at least two different styles—Menri and the Encampment style—and was a keen observer of early masterpieces and different styles of painting.

Sets: Situ’s Greatest Legacy

Painting sets often depict iconographic themes far too complicated to fit into a single work. Some of Situ Panchen’s most important and prominent artistic legacies are the multi-painting sets that he designed, many of which are still copied to this day. Indeed, most of Situ’s compositions are known to us through these later copies. Among these only six were mentioned in Situ Panchen’s autobiography as his own commissions:

  1. Eight Great Tantric Adepts (), painted in 1726 (fig. 3);
  2. The Previous Lives of (jatakas), sketched in 1726 (fig. 4);
  3. The Six Ornaments and Two Excellent Ones (eight greatest scholastic authorities of ), painted in 1730 (fig. 5);
  4. Eight Great  (based on a sixteenth-century model), commissioned in 1732 (fig. 6);
  5. Kshemendra’s Wish-Granting Vine Series of One Hundred and Eight Morality Tales , designed in 1733 (fig. 7);
  6. Twenty-Seven Tantric Deities, designed and commissioned in 1750 (fig. 8).
Bodhisattva dressed in sumptuous dhoti holds blossom in right hand while seated on rocky outcropping
Fig. 6

Avalokiteshvara, after Situ’s set of Eight Great Bodhisattvas; Kham region, eastern Tibet; 19th century; pigments on cotton; 19 7/8 × 13 5/8 in. (50.5 × 34.6 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; C2008.9 (HAR 65829)

Mountainous landscape featuring multiple scenes and buildings nestled within valleys and on riverbanks
Fig. 7

The Wish-Granting Vine Series of One Hundred and Eight Morality Tales, twenty-first painting after Situ’s set; Kham region, eastern Tibet; 19th century; pigments on cotton; 33 × 24 in. (83.8 × 61 cm); Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection; P1996.9.5 (HAR 247); photograph by Adam Reich, courtesy the Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection

Wrathful deity locked in embrace with consort above mountain landscape surrounded by six deity portraits
Fig. 8

White Chakrasamvara, from Situ’s set of The Twenty-Seven Tantric Deities; Kham region, eastern Tibet; ca. 18th century; pigments on cotton; 38 7/8 × 26 7/8 in. (98.7 × 68.3 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; C2006.66.15 (HAR 432)

Situ would often set up workshops of painters he had trained, such as for the Morality Tales set (fig. 7), the compositions of which he sketched himself, and he personally directed the entire process, from the initial coloring to the finishing details. In an inscription Situ composed for a final painting portraying himself as patron (fig. 9), he outlines his all-encompassing artistic vision:

I have followed the Chinese masters in color, in mood expressed, and form, and I have depicted lands, dress, palaces, and so forth as [I have] actually seen in India. Even though all the discriminating skill of Mentang—[both] New and Old—and the Khyen [ri] tradition followers, Jeugangpa and the Encampment (Gardri) masters are present here, I have made [these paintings] different in a hundred thousand [particulars of] style.

His mention of things he had “actually seen in India” refers to his first pilgrimage to Nepal in 1723.

Situ’s designs became important templates for art production at Pelpung Monastery, and more widely in eastern Tibet, having a major impact on other local painting traditions. Situ’s compositions have some distinctive features (fig. 7), including the unusually diminutive rendering of figures in open, airy landscapes, contrasted with miniaturist treatments of trees, buildings, palaces, and courtyards depicted in precise detail, with every leaf and brick delineated. This is a clever visual strategy to draw the eye into each vignette. Landscapes are especially distinctive due to the layering of blue and green pigment in dots with the tip of a dry brush. This technique builds up the landscape, from blank canvas to deep color, giving paintings the airy, yet intensely bright quality for which the style became famous.

Related Pelpung Monastery Sets

Six other main sets of paintings have been identified as coming from Situ’s monastic seat, Pelpung, using other written sources or on the basis of stylistic similarities with those sets identified in Situ’s biographies. The portrait of Situ Panchen under consideration belongs to one such well-known set (fig. 1), featuring masters of the combined lineages of the and Six Dharmas of Naropa, the two main teachings of the Karma Kagyu tradition. Later generations would commission paintings to bring the set up to date by adding their own gurus.

Though oral tradition by such well-informed Karma Kagyu masters as Thrangu Rinpoche (b. 1933) and Tenga Rinpoche (1932–2012) links Situ Panchen to this set, and even maintains that it was designed by him, it is not documented in Situ’s autobiographies. The modern Pelpung historian Karma Gyeltsen clarifies its origins, stating that while the set does indeed date to the time of Situ, Situ was not the patron. Its actual patron was Situ’s nephew and disciple, Won Sampel, who acted as Situ’s treasurer. The main painter of this set was one of Situ’s chief artistic disciples in his later years, Karsho Karma Tashi, as indicated by his tiny self-portrait (fig. 10), identified by inscription, in the foreground of the final painting (fig. 11). Karma Tashi was from Karsho, one of the significant centers of painting in northwestern Kham, near Karma Monastery, Situ’s previous seat before he founded Pelpung.

Monk, dressed in saffron brocade robe, kneels and holds forth white prayer scarf and yellow implements
Fig. 10

Detail showing the painter Karsho Karma Tashi, from bottom left of Thirteenth Karmapa, Dudul Dorje (1733–1797), from a Pelpung set of Masters of the Combined Kagyu Lineages; Kham region, eastern Tibet; ca. 1760s; Rubin Museum of Art; C2005.20.1 (HAR 65494)

Painting, mounted on blue brocade featuring dragon motif, depicting lama seated before attendants in mountain landscape
Fig. 11

Thirteenth Karmapa, Dudul Dorje (1733–1797), from a Pelpung set of Masters of the Combined Kagyu Lineages; Kham region, eastern Tibet; ca. 1760s; mineral pigments on cotton, silk brocade mount; 62¾ × 36 7/8 × 1 1/8 in. (159.4 × 93.7 × 2.9 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; C2005.20.1 (HAR 65494)

Late in his life, Situ reminisced that through the paintings that he designed and commissioned, the artistic traditions of his native Kham were beginning to shine again.

Footnotes
1

Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas, Ta’i Si Tur ’bod Pa Karma Bstan Pa’i Nyin Byed Kyi Rang Tshul Drangs Por Brjod Pa Dri Bral Shel Gyi Me Long [The Autobiography and Diaries of Situ Panchen], ed. Lokesh Chandra, Śatapitaka Series 77 (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1968); David P. Jackson, A History of Tibetan Painting: The Great Tibetan Painters and Their Traditions, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften 42 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996), 259–87; David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 3– 19, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96; Tashi Tsering, ed., “Situ Panchen: His Contribution and Legacy,” Lungta, Lungta, 13, no. (Winter) (2000): 129–33. 

2

Tashi Tsering, ed., “Situ Panchen: His Contribution and Legacy,” Lungta, Lungta, 13, no. (Winter) (2000); Karl Debreczeny, ed., “Situ Panchen: Creation and Cultural Engagement in Eighteenth-Century Tibet,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 7, no. Special issue (August) (2013), http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#!jiats=/current/.

3

Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas, Ta’i Si Tur ’bod Pa Karma Bstan Pa’i Nyin Byed Kyi Rang Tshul Drangs Por Brjod Pa Dri Bral Shel Gyi Me Long [The Autobiography and Diaries of Situ Panchen], ed. Lokesh Chandra, Śatapitaka Series 77 (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1968); David P. Jackson, A History of Tibetan Painting: The Great Tibetan Painters and Their Traditions, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften 42 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996), 259–8, 42–47; Si tu and ’Be lo = Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas and ’Be lo Tshe dbang kun khyab, Bsgrub rgyud karma kam tshang brgyud pa rin po che’ i rnam par thar pa rab ’byams nor bu zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba (Reprint, New Delhi: D. Gyaltsan and Kesang Legshay, 1775), 458-59, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23435. On Situ’s early life, see D. David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 3-6, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96

4

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009),118–19, 137–52. https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96.

5

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 120–21, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96

6

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 121, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96

7

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009),1 21-22, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96; Karl Debreczeny, “Situ Penchen’s Artistic Legacy in ’Jang,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 7, no. August (2013): 193–276.

8

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 122, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96; Tashi Tsering, “Si Tu Paṇ Chen and His Painting Style: A Retrospective,” ed. Karl Debreczeny, Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 7 (August) (2013): 130–33, 140, 152, 162–63.

9

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 125, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96.

10

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009),12; https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96; see also Tashi Tsering, “Si Tu Paṇ Chen and His Painting Style: A Retrospective,” ed. Karl Debreczeny, Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 7 (August) (2013): 131, 162–63. 

11

On Situ’s pilgrimage to Nepal, see Hubert Decleer, “Si Tu Paṇchen’s Translation of the Svayambhu Purana and His Role in the Development of the Kathmandu Valley Pilgrimage Guide (Gnas Yig) Literature,” Lungta 13, no. Summer (2000): 33–64.

12

David P. Jackson, The Place of Provenance: Regional Styles in Tibetan Painting, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 4 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2012), 87-116, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/place_of_provenance_96. 

13

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 25–35. https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96.

14

David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 169 and n418, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96; Karma rgyal mtshan, Kaṃ Tshang Yab Sras Dang Dpal Spungs Dgon Pa’i Lo Rgyus Ngo Mtshar Dad Pa’i Padma Rgyas Byed [History of the Chief Lamas of the Karma Kagyu Tradition and of Pelpung Monastery] (Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1997), 231.

15

The inscription reads ri mo’i byed po mang ga’i ming/. David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 21–22, 168, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96David P. Jackson, The Place of Provenance: Regional Styles in Tibetan Painting, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 4 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2012), 90, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/place_of_provenance_96.

16

David P. Jackson, The Place of Provenance: Regional Styles in Tibetan Painting, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 4 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2012), 87–88, 167–69, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/place_of_provenance_96.

17

mdo khams kyi phyogs ’di’i bzo rigs bris ’bur gyi srol yang gsal bar gyur: Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas, Ta’i Si Tur ’bod Pa Karma Bstan Pa’i Nyin Byed Kyi Rang Tshul Drangs Por Brjod Pa Dri Bral Shel Gyi Me Long [The Autobiography and Diaries of Situ Panchen], ed. Lokesh Chandra, Śatapitaka Series 77 (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1968); David P. Jackson, A History of Tibetan Painting: The Great Tibetan Painters and Their Traditions, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften 42 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996), 259–87, 158.1; David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style, Exhibition catalog, Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1 (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 12, 122 and 266n349, https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96; Karl Debreczeny, “Situ Penchen’s Artistic Legacy in ’Jang,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 7, no. August (2013): 194.

Further Reading

Jackson, David P. 2009. Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style. Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series 1. Exhibition catalog. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009. https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/patron_and_patron_96.

Tashi Tsering, ed. 2000. “Situ Panchen: His Contribution and Legacy.” Special issue, Lungta 13 (Winter). Dharamsala: Amnye Machen Institute.

Debreczeny, Karl, ed. 2013b. “Situ Panchen: Creation and Cultural Engagement in Eighteenth-Century Tibet.” Special issue, Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, 7 (August), esp. 125–92. http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#!jiats=/current/.

Citation

David Jackson and Karl Debreczeny, “Portrait of Situ Panchen: Great Tibetan Patron and Designer of Buddhist Art in Kham,” Project Himalayan Art, Rubin Museum of Art, 2023, http://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/essays/portrait-of-situ-panchen.

Avadana

Language:
Sanskrit

Avadana is a genre of narrative Buddhist literature found in the Mahayana sutras, and one category of Buddhist teachings. Together with the jataka stories that narrate the past lives of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, these stories typically demonstrate the workings of karma, or cause and effect, and how the protagonists’ past actions lead to their present experiences. Most Avadanas center on persons other than the Buddha, but they can relate to the Buddha as well.

Buddha Shakyamuni

Language:
Sanskrit
Alternate terms:
Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha

Buddha Shakyamuni, or simply “The Buddha,” is an epithet for Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the Buddhist religion. While the exact dates of Siddhartha’s life are debated, scholars generally place him in the sixth to fifth century BCE. According to early Buddhist narratives, Siddhartha was born a prince of the Shakya clan in what is now northern India and southern Nepal. Choosing to leave his palace and family for a life as a religious ascetic, Siddhartha achieved enlightenment while meditating under the Bodhi Tree. Siddhartha spent the rest of his life as a wandering teacher, gathering disciples to form the early Buddhist monastic community (sangha). Buddha Shakyamuni is revered all over the Buddhist world today.

Kagyu

Language:
Tibetan

The Kagyu are a major Later Diffusion tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu trace their lineages back to the Mahasiddhas, the great tantric masters of medieval India. The Kagyu are known for their yogic practices, as well as the teaching of Mahamudra, or the “Great Seal.” The Kagyu tradition includes many different branches, such as the Karma, Drukpa, Drigung, Tselpa, Pakmodru, and others. The most influential leaders of the Karma Kagyu are the Karmapas, a tulku lineage associated with that Kagyu branch. In Bhutan, the Drukpa Kagyu tradition serves as the state religion. A follower of the Kagyu is called a Kagyupa.

patronage

A practice of hiring and commissioning artists to create works of art. In religious context patrons were often rulers, religious leaders, as well as ordinary people. (see also donor)

Tibetan Buddhism

Historically, Tibetan Buddhism refers to those Buddhist traditions that use Tibetan as a ritual language. It is practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Ladakh, and among certain groups in Nepal, China, and Russia and has an international following. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in two waves, first when rulers of the Tibetan Empire (seventh to ninth centuries CE), embraced the Buddhist faith as their state religion, and during the second diffusion (late tenth through thirteenth centuries), when monks and translators brought in Buddhist culture from India, Nepal, and Central Asia. As a result, the entire Buddhist canon was translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to become centers of intellectual, cultural, and political power. From the end of the twelfth century, Tibetans were exporting their own Buddhist traditions abroad. Tibetan Buddhism integrates Mahayana teachings with the esoteric practices of Vajrayana, and includes those developed in Tibet, such as Dzogchen, as well as indigenous Tibetan religious practices focused on local gods. Historically major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk.