A THANGKA DEPICTING EKAVIRA VAJRABHAIRAVA Tibet, 15th Century

A THANGKA DEPICTING EKAVIRA VAJRABHAIRAVA Tibet, 15th Century

the ithyphallic dark blue buffalo-headed deity, wearing gem-encrusted jewellery and human bone adornments, a garland of severed heads and snakes, with eight further multi-coloured faces, thirty-two arms with a panoply of ritual implements held in the outstretched hands, lunging in pratyalidha with sixteen legs trampling birds and animals and prostrate Hindu deities, all supported by a lotus pedestal against a flaming background filled with twelve multi-armed retinue deities in yab-yum and Manjusri above, with Vajradhara in the upper register together with mahasiddha, Indian pandita and Tibetan lamas, Hindu deities as guardians in the side registers, including Indra on the elephant vahana Airavata, Vishnu, Agni, Yama, Nairrita, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera, Ganesha, Ishana, Surya, Chandra and Prithvi, a Tibetan donor monk officiating below with Yama Dharmaraja and retinue in the lower register

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 8003.
38 1/4 by 28 1/2 in. (97 by 72.5 cm)

Provenance:
Amy Heller, Tibetan Art: Tracing the Development of Spritual Ideals and Art in Tibet, Milan, 1999, cat. no. 80.

David Jackson, A Revolutionary Artist of Tibet: Khyentse Chenmo of Gongkar, New York, 2016, p. 306, fig. no. 13.2.