A large black-ground thangka depicting Mahakala Brahmanarupa, Tibet, circa 1740-80

Collection of Jack (1926-2017) and Muriel (1929-2019) Zimmerman.

Horizons of the Sacred: The Tibetan View of Shangri-la, Tibet House, New York, 1998.

Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn; Fundacio “la Ciaxa”, Barcelona; Tobu Museum of Art, Tokyo; Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi; Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba; and China Times Culture Center, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 201.

Rituels tibétains: Visions secrètes du Ve Dalai Lama, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2002, cat. no. 46.

Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A. F. Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, expanded edition, New York, 2000, cat. no. 201.

Rituels tibétains: Visions secrètes du Ve Dalai Lama, Paris, 2002, cat. no. 46.

This magnificent black-ground thangka, created in Tsang Province, Central Tibet in the Khyenri and New Menri styles, depicts Brahmanarupa — a form of Mahakala particularly associated with the Sakya order. Of large size and vividly painted with intricate detail of the principle figure and lineage lamas, it was described by Marilyn Rhie and Robert Thurman in the landmark publication The Sacred Art of Tibet, New York, 2000, p. 201 as ‘the finest and largest thangka yet to surface of Brahmanarupa’, and attributed to the seventeenth century.

When the great Tibetan Translator Nyen Lotsawa received the Manjuvajra Guhyasamaja (also known as the Jnanapada Lineage) empowerment from the dakini Risula, he was also bestowed with the initiation of a special form of the Mahakala (Chaturmukha) according to the Guhyasamaja Tantra. At this time, she also gave him a dark-skinned Brahman as a servant. When Nyen Lotsawa and the Brahman reached Nepal, the servant changed appearance and took on the form of a monk, an appearance more conducive for travelling in Tibet. After the passing of Nyen Lotsawa, the monk remained with Lama Nam Ka'upa and then later with Sachen Kunga Nyingpo.

Brahmarupa Mahakala is none other than the Chaturmukha Mahakala of the Guhyasamaja Tantra. In his wrathful appearance, he is black in color with four faces and four hands, surrounded by the four dakinis.

In the Sakya School it is considered inappropriate to show the wrathful form to anyone who has not received the initiation. For this reason, the iconographic tradition arose for painting Chaturmukha in the form of the Brahman servant of Nyen Lotsawa. At the bottom of many Sakya thangkas it is a common theme to see Panjarnata Mahakala flanked by the Brahman on the right and Shri Devi (Palden Lhamo) on the left — the three main protectors of the Sakya School.

Mahakala is depicted in the form of black Brahmanarupa, seated on a prostrate white corpse, holding a thighbone trumpet adorned with tasseled streamers in his right hand and balancing a skull bowl filled with demon blood in his left hand. His skull-bone rosary is depicted flipped around his wrist, with a spear in the crook of his elbow. A pink and white flayed human skin drapes over his shoulders, with a sword, vase, and vajra-handled chopper below his right knee. Floating out from a spear at his left shoulder is a silk banner decorated with stylized Chinese shou (longevity) characters.

At the edges of the Pristine Awareness Wisdom Fire are four dakinis, ghoulish in appearance, dynamic in posture: Dombini, Chandali, Rakshasi and Singhali Devi - black, red, yellow and green, although dominantly black in color. They are naked with disheveled orange hair, each holding a curved knife and a skull cup.

Directly above Mahakala, floating on the clouds, is Manjuvajra Guhyasamaja — orange, with three faces and six hands embracing the consort; while the top corners depict lineages ending with the Great Abbots of the Ngor Ewam Monastery: descending from the top right are Risulu Dakini, Dragpa Gyaltsen, Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1456), Doringpa and Palden Chogyong (1702-1760), the 34th Abbot of Ngor; and the left depicting Nagarjuna, three teachers, and Sanggye Puntsog (1649-1705), the 25th Abbot.

At the bottom center is Begtse Chen flanked by his consort and son: the Mistress of Life and the Lord of Life; at the lower right is Vaishravana riding a lion; and, at the lower left corner, is a donor figure with the name inscription of Ewam Rinchen Migyur Gyaltsen (1717-80) of the Luding Labrang and the 37th Great Abbot of Ngor Ewam Monastery.

For further information on the iconography of this exceptional thangka, see Jeff Watt, www.himalayanart.org, item no. 31363, where the author attributes the composition to around 1760 and identifies the last two teachers as Palden Chogyong (1702-1760) and Migyur Gyaltsen (b. 1717).