A large memorial thangka of Jampa Kunga Tendzin, Abbot of Ngor Monastery, Tibet, dated 1862

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

Tibet: Tradition and Change, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, 1997, cat. no. 34.

The Place of Provenance: Regional Styles in Tibetan Painting, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2012, fig. 4.22.

Eye to I: 3000 Years of Portraits, Katonah Museum of Art, New York, 2013, cat. no. 52.

Pratapaditya Pal, Tibet: Tradition and Change, Albuquerque, 1997, cat. no. 34.

David Jackson, The Place of Provenance: Regional Styles in Tibetan Painting, New York, 2012, fig. 4.22.

Eye to I: 3000 Years of Portraits, New York, 2013, p. 52.

Jörg Heimbel, 'Portraits of the Great Abbots of Ngor: The Memorial or Death Anniversary Thangka (dus thang)', In Volker Caumanns, Jörg Heimbel, Kazuo Kano, and Alexander Schiller, eds., Gateways to Tibetan Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honour of David P. Jackson on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, Hamburg, 2021, p. 377, fig. 9.

The Memorial Thangka of Jampa Kunga Tendzin, the 47th abbot of Ngor monastery 

Dr Jörg Heimbel

The present painting depicts Jampa Künga Tendzin (1776–1862), the 47th Abbot of Ngor monastery (tenure: 1812–1821). Commissioned in 1862, the painting is a memorial thangka, one of the portraits traditionally made of a deceased Ngor abbot as part of his funerary commissions. These memorial thangkas were made to an imposing size, specified in the biographies of Ngor abbots as being the height of one storey of the assembly hall of Ngor, and were displayed on the occasion of the annual memorial service on the respective abbot’s death anniversary.

Funerary commissions for Ngor abbots typically included the following portraits of the deceased abbot:

Statues Portraying the Abbot:

- A chamber statue (gzims mal sku ’dra), which was a statue that was destined for the abbot’s former chamber or living quarters

- A statue as a supplement continuing an existing set or series of statues of masters representing the lineage of the Lamdre instructions

- A statue as a supplement continuing an existing set or series of statues of masters representing the lineage of the Profound Path Guruyoga

Paintings Portraying the Abbot:

- A memorial thangka (dus thang) to be displayed on the abbot’s death anniversary

- A thangka as a supplement continuing an existing set or series of paintings of masters representing the lineage of the Lamdre instructions

The present painting is rich in inscriptions, and the circumstances surrounding its commissioning are also detailed in the biography of its principle figure, Jampa Künga Tendzin. By taking this internal and external evidence together, we can easily reconstruct the circumstances of its commissioning and the date of its production.

The biography of Jampa Künga Tendzin was written by Jampa Künga Tenpe Gyeltsen (1829–1870), the 54th Abbot of Ngor (tenure: 1851–1859) and nephew of Jampa Künga Tendzin. The biography tells us that Jampa Künga Tendzin passed away on the 17th day of the first of two third Tibetan lunar months of 1862. As part of his funerary commissions, his biography explicitly mentions the commissioning of portraits in the form of a gilded statue, which was installed in the Lamdre Chapel as a supplement to the Lamdre lineage, as well as a memorial thangka.

Work on the memorial thangka began just one month after Jampa Künga Tendzin’s death and its consecration was presided over by Khenchen Dorje Chang Nenjor Jampel Zangpo (1789–1864), the 51st Abbot of Ngor (tenure: 1835–1842) and his younger brother. The entire process is described as follows:

"Furthermore, beginning from the first half of the second of two third lunar months [of 1862], having summoned the painter from Tanak, he created in an extremely excellent manner and qualitatively very pure a precious memorial thangka of Jampa Künga Tendzin to be displayed in the Tsuklak Khang, and its entire brocade mounting and cloth cover were also produced consummately. Presided over by Khenchen Dorje Chang Nenjor Jampel Zangpo, we, together with some fully ordained monks, performed the thangka’s consecration on the basis of Amitāyus. On the 17th day of the fifth Tibetan lunar month, the thangka was ceremonially taken into the Tsuklak Khang of Ngor E wam’s monastic community. On that day, I accomplished in the Tsuklak Khang a consummate offering of reverence including a hundredfold series of offerings and for the entire monastic community performing the guru puja, a distribution of one silver coin to each fully ordained monk; and as careful as possible an offering to also invite the incumbent Khen Rinpoche [the Abbot of Ngor] for dedicating the accumulation of merit."

The memorial thangka itself contains two inscriptions confirming the identity of the main figure as Jampa Künga Tendzin. The first inscription is found in the dark blue or black bottom cartouche and is written over two lines. It begins with a verse of praise comprising four metrical lines of nine syllables each that interweave the syllables of Jampa Künga Tendzin’s name. The second inscription is another verse of praise, written on four petals of the lotus seat (i.e., two petals on either side of the central petal) as part of the throne on which Jampa Künga Tendzin is depicted sitting. This verse comprises four metrical lines of seven syllables on each of the four petals.

The first inscription provides further information about the painting’s creation. The sponsoring patron who commissioned it was the Tartse Labrang, one of the four main lama palaces of Ngor. The Tartse Labrang was under the control of the Drangti family, to which Jampa Künga Tendzin belonged and whose lama palace he had lead.

The author of the inscription (and most likely the one on the lotus petals too) is also mentioned, revealing himself indirectly by using one of his aliases. However, with the help of literary sources, he can be identified as the above-mentioned Jampa Künga Tenpe Gyeltsen, the 54th Abbot of Ngor, who was the nephew of Jampa Künga Tendzin and author of his biography.

The inscription also mentions the artist who painted the memorial thangka: Tanak Lhadri Kelzang Rapgye. The element “Tanak” in his name refers to his native region of Tanak, a valley located north of Ngor on the northern bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo. The biographies of the above-mentioned younger brother (Jampel Zangpo) and nephew (Jampa Künga Tenpe Gyeltsen) of Jampa Künga Tendzin mention that memorial thangkas were also made as part of their funerary commissions. These were commissioned in 1864 and 1871 respectively, and were also painted by an artist from Tanak. Therefore, it seems likely that all three memorial thangkas were painted by the same artist: Tanak Lhadri Kelzang Rapgye.

The basic composition of the present memorial thangka depicts the main figure seated on a throne against a Chinese-inspired backdrop, consisting of a green landscape below, a lake or ocean in the middle, and a blue sky above. Jampa Künga Tendzin is depicted wearing a red pandita hat with long flaps that cover his ears and fall over his shoulders. He also has a long white beard, a distinguishing feature of abbots from the Drangti family-run Tartse Labrang. Unlike earlier examples of memorial thangkas, which commonly arranged the minor figures in linear rows and columns around the main figure, this painting features an informal yet balanced arrangement. Moreover, whereas earlier memorial thangkas depicted the main figure surrounded by the entirety of masters representing in most cases two lineages, this painting only depicts an abbreviated lineage. This is probably because the lineages had become too long to be depicted completely by the 19th century.

An abbreviated Ngor lineage, originating with Virūpa, is likely depicted on either side of the main figure. Virūpa, the famous Indian adept, is depicted to the left above the main figure’s head (from the viewer’s perspective), colored brown and performing the Dharma teaching gesture — one of his six iconographical forms in the Sakya school. On the opposite side, there is a group of three white-clad and two red-clad Tibetan masters, who iconographically appear to portray the five Sakya founding fathers. The third founding father, Jetsün Drakpa Gyeltsen (1147–1216), is also identifiable by his labelling inscription. The last two masters, to the left and right at the main figure’s hand-height are also identifiable by labelling inscriptions as Ngorchen Künga Zangpo (1382–1456), the founder of Ngor Monastery, and Penchen Namkha Pelzang (1535–1602), the 13th Abbot of Ngor (two tenures: 1579–1582/83 and 1590–1595) and the first Ngor Abbot from the Drangti family. Given that the Lamdre lineage of Ngor was always depicted in all other memorial thangkas, one could speculate whether this is also what is represented here.

A notable feature of the present memorial thangka is its depiction of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni flanked by his two main disciples in the top center. The Buddha is accompanied on both sides by a group of six Indian gurus, who appear to represent the Six Ornaments: Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dignaga, and Dharmakirti. Moreover, two figures of great historical importance are depicted together in the third row on the left side. Judging by the legible traces of the inscription, the first figure represents the great translator Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055), and the second represents the minister Tönmi Sambhota, who, according to Tibetan tradition, invented the Tibetan script in the 7th century. 

The painting also depicts different kinds of deities. Above the head of the main figure, to the left and right, are the tutelary deities Hevajra and Vajrayogini (Naro Khecari). Here, the form of Hevajra bearing skull cups (Kapaladhara) is shown with his two right legs extended downwards, bent at the knees, pressing down on the four Maras piled on top of each other like a seat or cushion. His two left legs are raised up in a half-crossed-leg posture. This depiction of the leg posture is specific to the Lamdre meditative system as practised by the Ngor tradition.

As with other memorial thangkas, this one also includes the Shakya triad of protectors, with Panjaranatha Mahakala at the bottom center, flanked by Brahmarupa Mahakala on the left and Shridevi Dhumavati on the right. Additionally, White Shadbhuja Mahakala is depicted in the bottom left corner and Vaishravana in the bottom right.

Inscription in the dark blue or black bottom cartouche:

[1st line:]

༄༅ ། ། ཨོཾ་སྭ་སྟི་། ། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་ཁྱབ་བདག་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་། ། བྱམས་བརྩེ་ནུས་པས་འགྲོ་རྣམས་སྒྲོལ་བའི་སླད་། ། ཀུན་དགའི་མཚན་དཔེར་ཤར་བའི་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་། ། བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་ཞབས་ལ་འདུད་། ། ༡ གང་དེའི་གཟུགས་སྐུ་བལྟ་བས་མི་ངོམས་པ་། ། མངོན་སུམ་འཇལ་བའི་སྐལ་བ་བྲལ་ན་ཡང་། ། དེ་དང་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པའི་སྐུ་བརྙན་འདི་། ། དད་ལྡན་བསོད་ནམས་ཞིང་དུ་བཞེངས་པའི་དགེས་། ། ༢ རྒྱལ་བསྟན་དར་ཞིང་དེ་འཛིན་ཞབས་པད་བརྟན་། ། འགྲོ་ཀུན་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཡར་ཟླའི་དཔལ་ལ་སྤྱོད་། ། བདག་སོགས་འདུལ་བྱ་མཐའ་དག་མགོན་□□་།།

[2nd line:]

རྗེས་བཟུང་དོན་གཉིས་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག་། ། ༣ དེ་ལྟར་སྐུ་བརྙན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཐོང་བའི་མོད་ལ་ཡིད་ཀྱི་བརྟན་པ་ མཐའ་དག་གཅིག་ཆར་དུ་འཕྲོག་པ་འདིའང་། ཨེ་ཝཾ་ཐར་རྩེ་བླ་བྲང་ནས་རྒྱུ་སྦྱོར་ཡོན་གྱི་བདག་པོ་བགྱིས་ཏེ་རྟ་ནག་ལྷ་ བྲིས་སྐལ་བཟང་རབ་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་སོར་མོའི་ཟློས་གར་ལས་བསྤྲུན་པའི་ཚུལ་ཆེད་དུ་བརྗོད་པ་འདི་ནི་འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་ པའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་གཙུག་ལག་སྨྲ་བའི་ཉི་མ་ཕྱོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྡེས་སྨྲས་པ་དགེ་ལེགས་འཕེལ་། ། ། ། མངྒ་ལ་ཤྲཱི་ཛྭ་ལ་ཛམྦུ་དྭི་པ་མཎྜནྟུ་། ། ། །

Transliteration of the inscription in the dark blue or black bottom cartouche:

[1st line:]

| | oṃ swa sti | | dkyil ’khor rgya mtsho’i khyab bdag rdo rje ’chang | | byams brtse nus pas ’gro rnams sgrol ba’i slad | | kun dga’i mtshan dper shar ba’i sgyu ’phrul gyi | | bstan ’dzin rgya mtsho’i gtsug rgyan zhabs la ’dud | | 1 gang de’i gzugs sku blta bas mi ngoms pa | | mngon sum ’jal ba’i skal ba bral na yang | | de dang gnyis su med pa’i sku brnyan ’di | | dad ldan bsod nams zhing du bzhengs pa’i dges | | 2 rgyal bstan dar zhing de ’dzin zhabs pad brtan | | ’gro kun bde skyid yar zla’i dpal la spyod | | bdag sogs ’dul bya mtha’ dag mgon □□ ||

[2nd line:]

rjes bzung don gnyis lhun gyis ’grub par shog | | 3 de ltar sku brnyan rin po che mthong ba’i mod la yid kyi brtan pa mtha’ dag gcig char du ’phrog pa ’di’ang | e waṃ thar rtse bla brang nas rgyu sbyor yon gyi bdag po bgyis te rta nag lha bris skal bzang rab rgyas kyis sor mo’i zlos gar las bsprun pa’i tshul ched du brjod pa ’di ni ’ jam dpal dgyes pa’i bshes gnyen gtsug lag smra ba’i nyi ma phyogs thams cad las rnam par rgyal ba’i sdes smras pa dge legs ’phel | | | | mangga la shrī dzwa la dzambu dwi pa maṇḍantu | | | |

Taken together, the highlighted syllables in bold form the name of the main figure: Dorje Chang Jampa Künga Tenzin. In the Tibetan original, a highlighting sign resembling a candrabindu is written below these syllables. Misspellings have not been corrected.

Inscription on four petals of the lotus seat:

࿓། རྒྱལ་ཀུན་ཡེ་ཤེས་འདུས་པའི་མཚོ་། བྱམས་བརྩེའི་རླུང་གིས་འདུས་?པ་ལས་། ཉེར་ཐོན་ཀུན་དགའི་ཆ་སྫོགས་པའི་།  བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱུ་སྐར་བདག་པོར་འདུད་།།

Transliteration of the inscription on four petals of the lotus seat:

@| rgyal kun ye shes ’dus pa’i mtsho | byams brtse’i rlung gis ’dus? pa las | nyer thon kun dga’i cha sdzogs pa’i | bstan ’dzin rgyu skar bdag por ’dud ||

Taken together, the highlighted syllables in bold form the name of the main figure: Jampa Künga Tenzin. In the Tibetan original, a highlighting sign resembling a candrabindu is written below these syllables. Misspellings have not been corrected.

References

Heimbel, Jörg. 2025. “Classifying Funerary Commissions: Portraits of the Great Abbots of Ngor.” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 79: 175–238.

Heimbel, Jörg. 2021. “Portraits of the Great Abbots of Ngor: The Memorial or Death Anniversary Thangka (dus thang).” In Caumanns, Volker, Jörg Heimbel, Kazuo Kano, and Alexander Schiller (eds.), Gateways to Tibetan Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honour of David P. Jackson on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday. 2 vols. Indian and Tibetan Studies 12.1–2. Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, 301–379.