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Expert’s note
At 278 cm in length, the present textile is of imposing scale and was evidently intended for display in a monastic protector chapel, or gonkhang. Wrathful offering compositions of this type, representing the attributes of protector deities together with offerings made to them, are exceptionally rare as portable paintings but were a common feature of such chapels in Tibetan monasteries.
The quality of the painting is evident in the assured and refined treatment of the animals. The tiger, for example, is rendered with extraordinary vitality, its powerful body convincingly modeled through subtle tonal gradations, while the stripes, facial features, fur, and individual claws are articulated with fine and controlled brushwork.
Ink and pigments on silk damask. The monumental horizontal banner composed of three broad panels of beige and deep red silk stitched together, densely painted with wrathful offerings associated with the dharmapalas. The composition is centered by three large torma offerings, the outer two rising from kapala and the central offering set above three skulls, surrounded by corpses, severed body parts, black birds carrying entrails, flames, and numerous animals including a ram, deer, antelope, monkey, tiger, horse, and buffalo.
The upper register with a gruesome canopy of flayed human and animal skins, severed heads, hands and feet, tongues, organs, and trailing entrails. The deep red lower register with two large buffalo, a tiger, and a horse striding above stylized waves. The short sides finished with long knotted fringes.
Provenance: The private collection of Sjoerd de Vries, and thence by descent. Sjoerd de Vries (1952-2025) was a renowned Dutch art historian, Tibetologist, and dealer of Himalayan art. In 1979, he founded Astamangala, the only gallery in the Netherlands specializing in the ancient art of Tibet, Nepal, and India. Over his long and successful career, he sold works to numerous major museums including the Metropolitan, Rubin, LACMA, British, Victoria & Albert, Guimet, and Rietberg. A respected author, de Vries wrote Buddhism for Beginners (1994) and Hinduism for Beginners (1996). As a guest curator at the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, he arranged the 2009 installation of an authentic Tibetan temple, inaugurated by the Dalai Lama.
Condition: Good condition with old wear and signs of use. Expected fading, water marks, stains, and scattered tears and small holes mainly along the borders and seams, professionally restored and stabilized with fine organza backing. Several old patches to the reverse. The fringes with wear and minor losses.
Dimensions: Size 278 x 140 cm
The present monumental textile belongs to the Tibetan tradition of kangdze, elaborate ritual compositions of offerings intended for wrathful protector deities, or dharmapalas. Such works were displayed in the gonkhang, or protector chapel of a monastery, where the deities themselves could be evoked through their attributes, mounts, ritual offerings, and associated animals rather than represented directly. The present composition, with its three prominent torma offerings, skulls, flayed skins, severed limbs, viscera, carrion birds, corpses, and numerous animals including tiger, horse, bovines, ram, antelope, and monkey, closely follows this tradition.
Rather than referring to a single identifiable protector, the extraordinary range of motifs suggests a collective offering to several wrathful deities. Comparable kangdze include attributes associated with Vajrabhairava, Yama Dharmaraja, Mahakala, Shri Devi, Hayagriva, and other protectors within a single composition. The gruesome imagery was not intended as a literal representation of sacrifice but formed part of the symbolic language of wrathful Buddhist ritual, expressing the subjugation and transformation of obstacles and hostile forces.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related painting of Wrathful Offerings, Tibet, dated to the 19th century, ca. 91 x 63.5 cm, in the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, object number C2006.2.5. Compare a related painting on cloth of Ceremonial Offerings to the Dharmapala, Eastern Tibet, Kham region, dated to c. 1785, 226.1 x 114.6 cm, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession no. M.81.211a-b. Compare a closely related offering to the Buddhist Protective Deities Begtse Chen, Tsangpa Karpo, and Garwa Nagpo, dated 18th-19th century, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession no. M.2002.209, 80.65 x 239.4 cm.
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