PaintingsTibetan14th-15th century

Seated Medicine Buddha (Sanskrit: Bhaishajyaguru)

late 14th-mid 15th century

Description

The central figure in this Tibetan Buddhist painting, or thangka, is Bhaisajyaguru—the buddha of healing and medicine known more commonly as the Medicine Buddha. Seated on an elaborate lotus throne in traditional vajrasana position (with legs crossed, right foot over left), this dark-blue skinned Buddha grasps a myrobalan fruit (emblematic of healing) in his proper right hand; his left hand supports a begging bowl and rests on his lap in dhayanamudra position. He is flanked by two standing bodhisattvas – the red-skinned Suryabhaskara (with an emblem of the sun atop a lotus) to his proper right and the white-skinned Chandrabhaskara (with an emblem of the moon) to his proper left. Stupas containing the Five Symbolic Buddhas—including the historical Buddha Shakyamuni at the top center—sit on a tiered dais behind the main figure. The other figures that surround this assemblage in orderly rows and columns include: the eight emanations of the Medicine Buddha and the female Prajnaparamita, the Sixteen Bodhisattvas, the Sixteen Great Elders or arhats, the Ten Worldly Gods, the Twelve Yaksha Generals, the Guardian Kings of the Four Directions, and depictions of Tibetan Kings, teachers, and attendant figures. On the back of the painting, an image of a stupa is drawn in black ink, the stupa’s proportions and position corresponding to the composition of the main seated Medicine Buddha figure on the front. Within the stupa, three inscriptions written with the Tibetan alphabet appear: two in Sanskrit language, one in Tibetan language. A three-syllable mantra written in Tibetan script is repeatedly inscribed along the periphery of the stupa, each positioned to correspond to the placement of one of the surrounding figures (ie., the bodhisattvas, arhats, yakshas, etc.) depicted on the front. These inscriptions evoked and “installed” the spirit of the deity or historical person into the painting, thereby consecrating the thangka. Probably from Tsang province, Central Tibet (U-tsang).

Classification

Paintings

Medium

Unmounted thangka painting; ink, color, and gold on cloth; with image of a stupa and Tibetan-language inscriptions in black ink on the back.

Culture

Tibetan

Century

14th-15th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Asian Art

Dimensions

max. H. 57 x W. 45 cm (22 7/16 x 17 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Walter Norman Koelz, Waterloo, Michigan (by 1953), bequest; to The Nature Conservancy, New York (1989-1990), sold; [through Christie's, New York, October 3,1990] to Robert L. and Amy G. Poster, New York (1990-2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums Note: Walter Norman Koelz (1895–1989), University of Michigan.