“Even more important to the history of Tibetan art than Situ Panchen’s role as a painter is his role as a patron and designer of paintings, many of which continue to be copied to this day. Situ’s tradition is one of the best documented of the major Tibetan painting traditions, in part because of the extensive writings that he left, including his autobiography and diaries, rare windows into his artistic intentions that detail the paintings he designed and commissioned, the names of the artists he worked with, and his iconographic and artistic sources.”–Rubin Museum of Art on 8th Tai Situpa’s artworks and legacy
Introduction
As part of a general birthday offering to the 12th Tai Situpa, here is a new research article on the incredible artistic and intellectual legacy of 8th Tai Situ Panchen, Chokyi Jungne (1700-1774), in particular the artistic and historical significance of the 8th Tai Situpa’s painting of the Eight Great Mahasiddhas (Drub Chen Gye).
Of major importance in Tai Situ’s religious, artistic, and political like was in 1729 with the founding of his new monastic seat, Pelpung Monastery, in his birthplace of Derge, which became the artistic hub for the revival of the Karma Kagyu Encampment style (Gar-dri) . In 1726, as part of his request for permission to build this new monastery, he offered a set of paintings of the Eight Great Tantric Adepts (mahasiddhas) to the Derge ruler Tenpa Tsering (1678–1738). That gift then enabled him easily to move from Karma Monastery (his original Karma Kagyu seat), which was still undergoing persecution from the Gelug sectarian dominated Tibetan government (now supported by the Chinese Qing dynasty) to go to Dege and found Palpung Monastery there.
Also, I provide some brief information about the violent political and social background at the time (driven by Gelugpa sectarianism and foreign military invasion) when the Mahasiddha painting was completed. As I wrote about here during my own pilgrimage trip to Lijiang in 2024, to visit the five main Karma Kagyu temples there) 8th Tai Situpa also made several trips to Jang (Lijiang) in South China and became prominent there too, artistically and politically not only due to ongoing persecution and suppression of the Karma Kagyu by Gelugpa sectarianism (and foreign militaries) but also due to wanting to consult the Jang Kangyur edition for his monumentally significant Dege edition of the Kangyur. The Gelugpa sectarian military-supported forces had stolen the woodblocks and taken it to Lithang. Thus, the founding of Palpung, and the new Derge Kangyur edition, was done despite the ongoing Gelugpa sectarian persecution and violence, which Tai Situpa (and his secretary and faithful student, Belo) wrote about in detail in their auto/-biographical diaries (see details below). After the founding of Palpung Monastery and preservation of temples in Jang, Situ proved to be a brilliant polymath and charismatic leader, influential in many areas of cultural and institutional life in eighteenth-century Tibet and China. He made major contributions to the fields of painting, religion, literature, and medicine.
As contemporary art scholar-historian, David Jackson (2006) explains in Situ Panchen’s Paintings of the Eight Great Siddhas: A Fateful Gift to Derge and the World it is only recently that people have been made aware of these paintings and their actual origin:
“Although the great scholar-artist Situ Panchen Choki Jungne (1700-1774) of Derge and his circle of disciples commissioned in all some fifteen or twenty major sets of tangka paintings, most of these sets are only gradually coming to the notice of art historians. The two sets portraying great yogic mahasiddhas of India (Tib: Drubchen), however, are exceptions. As early as forty years ago, a set of masterpieces of eighteenth-century eastern Tibetan painting portraying the eighty-four great siddhas came to light. This stunning set, with exquisite miniaturist workmanship, was displayed for some years in Tibet House, New Delhi, and a few paintings were even exhibited internationally, exciting the interest of connoisseurs in the West. That set, we now know, was based on a Situ or Palpung monastery original.”
“Three sets of thangkas by Situ were prominently mentioned by his disciple-biographer not long after his death. All three are still known to masters of the Karma Kagyu tradition, but the first set, that of eight great siddhas, has only recently been identified among existing painting collections in the West.”
It remains for future studies to trace the eight siddhas as an iconographic group through Tibetan history back to India. For the present, only Situ’s set could be pinned down because of the level of detail found in his autobiography. In this case, contemporary written sources made it possible to determine when and under what circumstances he painted the originals, enabling us to sketch in a broader geographical and political background for the work. Such details are infrequently available, and even more rarely taken into account in Tibetan art history.”
Interestingly, these artworks are not at Palpung Monastery, Tibet nor at Palpung Sherab Ling monastery in India. As I wrote about here in relation to auctions of paintings by the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje, surely these paintings should be returned to their point of origin/estate (or at least give them the first option to purchase, if it was a legitimate sale)?
I conclude the article with some information and images of HH 12th Tai Situpa’s own artistic creations, which I only recently discovered while visiting Palpung Sherab Ling monastery, India. As many of the general public may also not be aware of these artworks, a few of them were in small print frames on the canteen walls see photos), I will also suggest (when I get an opportunity) to the General Secretary perhaps a room in the monastery, near the main library and shrine room, where 12th Tai Situpa’s artworks can be printed, framed and hung and devotees and tourists can spend time enjoying and appreciating their beauty and profound meaning. Otherwise they will remain in books, unseen and often unheard of, as I discovered!
There is also a stunning section on palpung.org website cataloguing the 12th Tai Situpa’s artworks, here.
As I wrote this article, with 8th Tai Situpa’s Golden Stupa building in view, it felt like some wisdom energy was encouraging me to write about these paintings and why they were so artistically and historically significant. Something deeper beneath the canvas surface was being revealed, about history, time, place and origin, as well as the origins of Vajrayana practice itself. I leave that for you all to think about and decide the wisdom message of it.
Music? If by Bread.
Who wrote it down? Tibetan sources by 8th Tai Situpa and Belo Tsewang Kunkyab and contemporary English language scholars, David Jackson and Karl Debreczeny
The two main primary Tibetan sources on Situ’s artistic activity are Situ’s Autobiography and edited diaries: Stainless Crystal Mirror ཏའི་སི་ཏུར་འབོད་པ་ཀརྨ་བསྟན་པའི་ཉིན་བྱེད་རང་ཚུལ་དྲངས་པོར་བརྗོད་པ་དྲི་བྲལ་ཤེལ་གྱི་མེ་ལོང༏་ and Situ’s biography contained in Situ and Belo’s Garland/Mala of Moon-Stone Jewels: Biographies of the Successive Masters of the Karma Bka’ brgyud School བསྒྲུབ་རྒྱུད་ཀརྨ་ཀམ་ཚང་བརྒྱུད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་རབ་འབྱམས་ནོར་བུ་ཟླ་བ་ཆུ་ཤེལ་གྱི་ཕྲེང་བ་ .[i] Situ’s close disciple and secretary Belo Tshewang Kunkhyab (b. 1718) wrote Situpa’s biography, which he completed a year after Situ’s death in 1775, and also edited Situ’s diaries. Tai Situpa composed the biographies of Karmapas one through five, and Belo completed the rest, including Situ’s own biography, which is also included in this work, Moon-Stone Mala. I have referred to the work of scholars like David Jackson (2006) and Karl Debrezceny (2010) to compile this overview article for the general public, but as I have been unable to check the original sources, I rely on their scholarship mainly for accuracy.
As I wrote about before in relation to the life-story and heartbreaking situation of the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje, Situ and Belo’s biography of the 10th Karmapa was of significant use, but according to Debreczeny it was excised from the published work.
As was the biography of the 6th Goshri Gyaltshab, Norbu Zangpo (1659/60-1698), who was born and raised in nearby Gyalthang (Zhongdian 中甸) . As Debreczeny points out, this biography is “conspicuously absent” from Situ and Belo’s history.”
It is possible (and likely) that these biographies were removed by the ruling Gelugpa-foreign forces in Tibet for the information they contained within them about their violent, criminal and unethical/non-Buddhist persecution, killing, destruction and suppression of these people during that time.
8th Situ Panchen, Chokyi Jungney the Artist
According to biographical sources, Situ Paṇchen took an interest in art from an early age, and began to paint even before receiving formal training. At the age of fifteen, Situ first learned iconometric proportions from a professional artist from Kongpo during his first visit to central Tibet in 1714.[ii]
Situ was thus initiated at a very young age into a Tibetan tradition artistic expertise.
“Si tu could paint in at least two different styles, Mendri (Sman bris) and Gardri (Sgar bris) and was a keen observer of early masterpieces and different styles of painting. For instance in 1714 some of the first painting Situ recorded studying were wall paintings of the “hundred adepts” by Menla Dondrub Sman bla don grub (founder of the Mendri style in the 15th century)[iv].”
The Rubin Art Museum states that:
“While the Encampment style was founded in the court of the Ninth Karmapa in the sixteenth century in central Tibet, most of what we know of this painting tradition belongs to its eighteenth-century revival fostered by Situ Panchen in eastern Tibet. Even more important to the history of Tibetan art than Situ Panchen’s role as a painter is his role as a patron and designer of paintings, many of which continue to be copied to this day. Situ’s tradition is one of the best documented of the major Tibetan painting traditions, in part because of the extensive writings that he left, including his autobiography and diaries, rare windows into his artistic intentions that detail the paintings he designed and commissioned, the names of the artists he worked with, and his iconographic and artistic sources.”
For several transcripts I produced on the 17th Karmapa’s original research and teaching on these important painting styles in Tibetan Buddhist history and Karma Kagyu, and earlier and later Karma Gar-ri style, see here and here.
The painting of Eight Mahasiddhas (Drubchen Gye) during turbulent and violent times, as gift to the Derge King that led to the founding of Palpung monastery, Dege, Tibet
In 1726, Situ painted one of his most celebrated and often copied sets of paintings: the “Eight Mahāsiddhas” (གྲུབ་ཆེན་བརྒྱད། Drubchen Gye) . According to Debreczeny (2010):
“This is the first set that Situ recorded painting, which marks the beginning of his public life as an artistic and religious leader. They were offered to the Dege king Tenpa Tsering as he requested permission to build his monastic seat. In his autobiography Situ recorded that he painted this set “in a manner like the Gar dri” (sgar bris ltar) and did the sketch and colouring himself.”[v]
According to another contemporary scholar-art historian, David Jackson (2006)[vi]:
“Situ painted the thangkas at a time of geographical and political realignment in eastern Tibet. In 1719/20, a large army of the aged Manchu Kangxi emperor (d. 1722) invaded central Tibet and ejected the Dzungars, bringing the Seventh Dalai Lama with them and installing him in the Potala. Three years later (1723/24), a new Manchu emperor, Yongzhen, put down a Mongol rebellion in the Kokonor region. When Kokonor was integrated into the Manchu empire in 1724, the China-Tibet border to the south was established as the Drichu (Yangtse) River. In 1726, the Yongzhen emperor sent a mission to Tibet with an edict that the Nyingma school, which had already suffered greatly under the Dzungars, be further suppressed, surely a worrying development also for other non-Gelukpa schools, such as Situ’s Karma bKa’ brgyud school, which had experienced forced conversions of many monasteries in the 1640s and subsequent official harassment. The minister Khang chen nas began carrying out the edict.”
Situ’s original monastic seat, Karma monastery, had been founded by the first Karmapa and counted as one of the three mother monasteries (gdan sa) of the Karma Kagyü school. Although Karma lay far from Lhasa in the Chamdo district of the Dzachu (Mekong) watershed of western Khams, it still fell well within the jurisdiction of the Tibetan government after 1724. It can hardly have been a coincidence that within a year or two, Situ decided to leave the Tibetan-governed Karma monastery — which was under the nose of the Khams governor (mdo smad spyi dpon) whose base was in Chamdo town—and establish his new monastic seat in his birth place, Derge, just across the new border, the Drichu River.”
It was at this time, while contemplating leaving Karma monastery, that Situ painted tangkas of the eight great tantric siddhas:
“He executed the sketching, coloring, and shading himself. Situ did not intend to keep these paintings. Instead, he took them with him to an important audience with the Derge ruler, Tenpa Tsering. At the crucial moment, when formally requesting permission to build a new monastery, he presented them to the king, overcoming any resistance the king might have had to the move. The king accepted the gift and promised support to build a monastery, donating the site of a burnt down and abandoned Ngorpa (Ngor pa) monastery at Palpung, not far to the south of Derge. Three years later, Situ carried out the actual foundation of his new monastery.
Soon afterward Karma Kagyu began a revival in which Situ himself played a large part. His patrons, the Dege kings, would benefit in the coming decades from Situ’s proximity, as when Situ led the editing of the printing blocks for the famed Dege Kanjur canon. Situ’s tangkas of the eight great siddhas were highly successful. The original paintings most likely remained the treasured possessions of the Derge kings, but they also became available to painters for copying (presumably Situ also kept tracings or copies). They then served as originals for countless later copies.”
In Karl Debreczeny’s Situ Panchen’s Artistic Legacy in Jang (2013) it states that:
“Another significant factor in the quickening of relations between Palpung Monastery and the Karma Kagyu temples of Jang (China) was the collapse of the Karma Kagyu establishment in central Tibet. The Mongol entry into the Tibetan civil war in 1642 resulted in the almost total eclipse of the Karma Kagyu tradition in central Tibet, after which many Karma Kagyu monasteries had been seized and forcibly converted.” [vii]
Painting style: Eight Great Mahasiddhas
The eight great Mahasiddhas are selected from the 84 Mahasiddhas to represent the “perfect” or “whole” number of accomplished adepts who came from all levels of society—kings, farmers, housewives, and musicians—highlighting that enlightenment is not restricted to monks. The custom of painting these eight siddhas is quite old among Tibetan Buddhist lineages known as the Dagpo Kagyu.
The eight great siddhas each frequented one of the eight cemetery grounds at the
edge of the Cakrasamvara (Tib. Khorlo Demchog) mandala, lists vary but generally include the ones below.
In the eight siddhas there is a single King – Indrabhuti. The majority of mahasiddhas in the set of the eighty-four are predominantly in lay figure appearance. Lay figures in the eight are represented by Saraha the brahmin, Padmavajra, Kukkuripa and sometimes by Lawapa who is often depicted wearing a single blanket. Nagarjuna is the most famous with monastic appearance. Lawapa is sometimes depicted in monastic attire. Siddha figures are represented by Virupa, Luipa, Ghantapa, and Dombi Heruka. Sometimes Padmavajra and Kukkuripa are depicted in siddha appearance. In the 18th century Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne replaced Luipa with Lawapa for his Palpung artistic compositions of the Eight Siddhas.
8th Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jungney’s Eight Great Mahasiddhas
According to contemporary scholar-art historian, David Jackson, there are earlier paintings of the great Mahasiddhas by 8th Tai Situpa. The richest assemblage of later paintings of Situ’s eight great siddhas, however, are in the Rubin Museum of Art and the collection of Shelley and Donald Rubin, which, together, contain more than a dozen portrayals of single great siddhas from several later sets. In Situ’s version, a ninth master was added as the central figure. This was Guru Padmasambhava. Situ’s original set was probably a series of single paintings.
All eight (or nine) siddhas can be identified in single or group portrayals, here numbered according to my provisional list:
1. Padmasambhava
2. Indrabhuti
3. Kukkuripa
4. Padmavajra
5. Nagarjuna
6. Dombi Heruka
7. Luipa [Lavapa]
8. Ghantapa
9. Saraha
Eight of these come from the same set, which originally consisted of nine paintings with Padmasambhava as the main figure of the central tangka (gtso thang). Only Kukkuripa is missing. Here Situ’s original compositions seem to have been simplified and standardized through repeated copying. The palette of this exemplar resembles that of the later (Khams pa?) sMan ris painting style.” Jackson (2006: 32)
Single Portraits of the Eight Great Mahasiddhas in the Palpung/Tai Situpa style
- Padmasambhava
2. King Indrabhuti
The Mahasiddha Indrabhuti is pictured in royal garb: white turban, gold earrings, and a vermilion longsleeved robe. He is seated on a low and relatively simple throne in a
relaxed posture, leaning back on his right hand, with his left hand reaching over his extended left knee. His consort, who dances on the right, offers him a golden pitcher. A dark green bodhisattva is seated on a mass of clouds in the sky above.
3. Mahasiddha Kukkuripa
4. Padmavajra
Padmavajra is shown in partial relief, wearing a crown and holding a brimming skullcup to his open mouth with his right hand. His left hand rests on his left thigh. He sits on a round mat, and before him is a golden bowl filled with fruit. A river meanders behind him through a landscape of green conical hills. A blue bodhisattva is shown seated on a lotus that floats in a cluster of clouds above to the right, in the tops of the two large trees growing in the foreground.
“In the Vajrasana system Padmavajra, also known as Sakara or Saroruha, is a layman and ate only fruit. The Jonang system appears to identify Padmavajra with the Vajrasana system rather than the Abhayadatta. In the Abhayadatta system Padmavajra is described as a monk. He is also said to have been born on a lotus which is similar to the narratives of Aryadeva and the ‘terma’ version of the life story of Padmasambhava. In some traditions Padmavajra, Padmakara and Padmasambhava are considered to be the same person. Regardless of the confusions or possible conflations, Padmakara is an alternate name used in the Nyingma tradition for Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava.”
5. Arya Nagarjuna
Here Nagarjuna is a monk with a protuberance on his head. He is shown wearing monk’s robes (here vermilion and blue) and seated on a folded ocher mat. His head protuberance makes him Buddha-like. He holds his right hand to his chest in the gesture of teaching and his left, palm outward, over his left knee. He contemplates before him a pond of water fed by two mountain waterfalls. A yellow bodhisattva
(Mañjusri?) is seated on a lotus floating in the clouds above.
6. Dombi Heruka
The Mahasiddha Dombi Heruka holds a snake and a skull-cup, and he rides a tiger, embraced by his consort. A blue-colored seated bodhisattva is in the clouds above.
7. Mahasiddha Lawapa
“Mahasiddha Lavapa is shown in a striking pose with eyes closed, long hair draping over his shoulders and hanging down his back. He wears a red (elsewhere white) cotton lower robe and sits with folded legs on a green mat in a cave. A yellow-colored seated bodhisattva is in a cluster of clouds above, hovering over the grassy mountaintop. It is strange to find the siddha Lavapa pictured here, for he does not actually belong to the eight great siddhas of the Cakrasamvara mandala as they are usually enumerated, or as they are found in the known earlier Tibetan depictions. But in the Situ set, he is regularly depicted in place of the similarly named Luipa.” (Jackson 2006: 33).
According to the Himalayan Art Resources page:
“Lawapa (Abhayakara #30, Vajrasana #19, Buton #62) is a name that makes reference to the blanket that Kambhala wore later in life. He is generally depicted in art either as either a monastic or as a lay person. Lawapa is not typical of the other mahasiddhas. Lawapa is commonly referred to by two different names and can appear either as a monk or as a layperson. Lawapa does not appear to be included in any of the early systems of the Eight Siddhas. In the 18th century, Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne, the founder of Palpung monastery, substituted for his own purposes, the mahasiddha Luipa and replaced him with Lawapa.”
8. Mahasiddha Ghantapa
In the appearance of an Indian yogi, brown in colour, thoroughly embraced by the wisdom consort he holds in the two hands a gold vajra and bell. Adorned with a crown of dry skulls, gold bracelets and anklets, he wears a long blue scarf and a short skirt of red and green cloth.
The mahasiddha Ghantapa is most famous within the Chakrasamvara lineage and plays a role as lineal guru within all the Sarma Schools. for more on Ghantapa and Chakrasamvara, read my article here: THE INDIAN BELL-HOLDER “GREAT BLISS CHAKRA” (DEMCHOK KHORLO): Indian Mahāsiddha, Ghantapa’s Five-Deity Cakrasaṁvara as held by First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, and empowerment teaching by 12th Goshri Gyeltsab Rinpoche
9.Saraha: the arrow-maker
Saraha was a brahmin arrowsmith and the Vajrayana teacher of Arya Nagarjuna and others. He popularized the Chakrasamvara and Guhyasamaja cycles of practice and taught a series of mystic mahamudra songs known as the King, Queen and People’s dohas. Saraha is recognized by long hair and beard, often white in colour, and an arrow held in the two hands. He sits in a relaxed posture and wears lay clothing. Saraha is included among the identifiable siddhas because of the arrow he holds. This is a unique attribute and not confused with any other siddhas from the five or more systems of the Eight-four Great Mahasiddhas or the system of the Eight Siddhas.
For my article on Saraha and his consort, see: UNSUNG HEROINES, MOTHERS OF MAHĀMUDRĀ AND SOURCE OF SARAHA’S SONGS : Re-telling the (her)stories of the symbolic ‘arrow-maker’ Dakhenma, and the ‘radish-curry’ cook gurus of siddha, Saraha
Group compositions
Besides depictions in nine single thangkas, the eight great siddhas can also be variously arranged and combined in five or three paintings or even a single one.
Jackson (2006) documents nine figures shown in three 18th Century Karma Kagyu thangkas (three siddhas each), which can be found in four paintings in the Rubin Museum of Art and the collection of Shelley and Donald Rubin that are from Palpung/8th Tai Situpa style. The first two are part of the same set. In the first painting are pictured Saraha, Lawapa, and Dombi Heruka. The second depicts Ghantapa, Padmavajra, and Kukkuripa (see images below).
The missing third thangka of this set was the middle painting (counted traditionally as the first in the set) that portrayed Padmasambhava as the main figure (instead of the expected Vajradhara) and the remaining two of the eight great siddhas (Nagarjuna and Indrabhuti) to the right and left. In this three-tangka set, bodhisattvas do not appear as minor figures.
Reasons why 8th Tai Situpa left Palpung for Jang, editing the Dege Kangyur and Situ’s artistic legacy there
After the establishment of Palpung, people of Khams and neighbouring regions, including ’Jang, now looked to Situ Panchen as the ranking leader of the Karma Kagyu and to Palpung Monastery as its new centre.
All of the Karma Kagyu temples built in the Jang area, which in the past had sent their monks to distant Tsurphu Monastery in central Tibet for training, quickly became branch temples of Palpung after Situ’s successive visits. A history of Palpung states that it had thirteen satellite temples in ’Jang. Tai Situ had either a direct hand in their founding or some significant involvement with the five most prominent of them.
In July 2024, I personally visited all these five Karma Kagyu temples/monasteries as a personal pilgrimage and research trip and documented them here, as individual articles, but also as a free e-book here.
Debreczeny (2010) also explains that:
“One important question concerns why Situ Panchen would leave for Lijiang, on the edge of the Tibetan world, in 1729 when he had only just finished the consecration of his new seat, Palpung Dpal Monastery. At such a watershed moment, one would expect him to stay and get his own house in order. The answer lies in the fact that in 1729 Situ was entrusted with the monumental task of editing the Dege edition of the Kangyur, whereupon he headed for the kingdom that had produced the edition edited by the noted Kagyu scholar the Sixth Zhwa dmar.
This is not to say that southern Khams remained unaffected by sectarian strife, as monasteries in areas formerly under Lijiang control/protection were burned down in 1674 by Mongol forces. As we shall soon see, even Si tu got caught up in the midst of one such battle himself while traveling in the area. Also in southern Khams, in the region of Chathreng (Cha ’phreng) alone, one hundred and thirteen Karma Kagyu monasteries were destroyed. However, the printing blocks for the aforementioned ’Jang edition of the Tripiṭaka had been confiscated and moved to a Gelug stronghold in Lithang by Mongol troops in 1698.
Indeed, Situ himself cites the ’Jang edition as the basis for his own 1733 Dege edition of the Kangyur. Situ’s new edition would in turn become one of the most authoritive and widely distributed versions of the Tibetan canon down to this very day, and one of Situ’s greatest legacies to the Tibetan cultural world[vii].”
“Six Ornaments and Two Excellent Ones [of Indian Scholasticism]” (རྒྱན་དྲུག་མཆོག་གཉིས།): painted by the 8th Tai Situpa
There is another (less famous) set, which Si tu records painting himself, the “Six Ornaments and Two Excellent Ones [of Indian Scholasticism]” (རྒྱན་དྲུག་མཆོག་གཉིས།) . Situ records in his diaries that while traveling along the road in northern Yunnan during the New Year of 1730:
“Due to Drenthang Sangye’s urging, I painted several paintings [for him], and for Lama Karma, I painted the Six Ornaments [of India] complete with colouring.” དྲན་ཐང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཞལ་ཐང་འགའ་རེ་དང།་བླ་མ་ཀརྨར་རྒྱན་དྲུག་གི་སྐུ་ཐང་རྣམས་ཚོན་མདངས་བཅས་བྲིས།་ Si tu Paṇ chen, Diaries, p. 148, line 7.[viii]
Si tu describes these paintings as “my new creation based on Chinese scroll paintings.” འདི་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་རྒྱ་ཐང་ལ་ཆ་བཞག་པའི་གསར་སྤྲོས་ཡིན།་[ix]
Several copies from the “Six Ornaments” set, including this painting of Nāgārjuna and āryadeva, are found in the Rubin Museum of Art collection.
Debreczeny (2010) explains that: “Again this set is only known to us in such copies, the fate of the originals given to his younger brother Lama Karma is unknown. What is important to note in these passages is that they specify that Situ painted these two sets himself “sketch together with color”.”
12th Khenting Tai Situpa’s Artworks, Photographs and Calligraphy
The current 12th Tai Situpa, Pema Donyo, is also a talented artist. I only recently discovered this while at Palpung Sherab Ling, and reading a book of his art in the Sherab Ling monastery shop.
His paintings are collected and published in four books, including: Meditation Art; Creativity: Magnificent Images Will Be Born; Awakening: Meditation Art of the 12th Tai Situpa; and Relative World, Ultimate Mind: The Art of the 12th Tai Situpa. A collection of the 12th Tai Situpa’s photographs, Eye of the Eye, was also published in 2000 in Taiwan. Most of these art works and his calligraphies were assembled in the book Collection of the Creative Art Works of XII Tai Situpa, published in 2004 in Taiwan. Here is a collection of photos I took of some of the artworks in the latter book (with permission):
SOURCES
Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas. ca 1774. Ta’i si tur ‘bod pa karma bstan pa’i nyin byed rang tshul drangs por brjod pa dri bral shel gyi me long. (The Autobiography and Diaries of Si tu Paṇ chen.) New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1968.
Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas and ’Be lo Tshe dbang kun khyab. 1775. sGrub brgyud karma kaṃ tshang brgyud par rin po che’i rnam par thar pa rab ’byams nor bu zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba (Biographies of the Successive Masters of the Karma Kagyü School). 2 vols. New Delhi: D. Gyaltsan and Kesang Legshay, 1972.
Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas. Karma Si tu’i sum rtags ’grel chen. Xining: Qinghai renmin chubanshe, 1957.
Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ‘byung gnas. Si tu Paṇ chen kyi ‘byung gnas kyi gsung ‘bum (Ta’i si tu pa kun mkhyen chos kyi ‘byung gnas bstan pa’i nyin byed kyi bka’ ‘bum (Collected works of the great Ta’i Si tu pa Kun mkhyen Chos kyi ‘byung gnas bsTan pa’i nin byed). Sansal, dist. kangra, h.p., India, 1990.
Secondary sources:
Debreczeny, Karl. 2009. “Bodhisattvas South of the Clouds: Situ Paṇ chen’s Activities and Artistic Influence in Lijiang, Yunnan.” in: David Jackson. Patron & Painter: Situ Paṇ chen and the Revival of the Encampment Style. NY: Rubin Museum of Art, pp. 222-251. (Chinese translation published in the Palace Museum Journal, March 2010)
— 2010. “Lama Patron and Artist: The Great Situ Paṇ chen” Arts of Asia, March, pp. 82-92.
— 2012. The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa. NY: Rubin Museum of Art.
— forthcoming. “Situ Paṇ chen’s Artistic Legacy in ’Jang.” In: Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies.
— forthcoming. “Tibetan Interests in Chinese Visual Modes: the Painting Innovations of Chos-dbyings rdo-rje.” Forthcoming in: Matthew Kapstein and Roger Jackson, eds. Mahamudra and the Bka’-brgyud Traditions [PIATS 2006: Proceedings of the Eleventh Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Königswinter 2006.], Halle: Institut Tibetan & Buddhist Studies GmbH.
Debreczeny, Karl (ed.) forthcoming. Situ Paṇ chen: Creation and Cultural Engagement in 18th-Century Tibet, a special Si tu conference issue of JIATS.
Jackson, David. 2009. Patron & Painter: Situ Paṇ chen and the Revival of the Encampment Style. NY: Rubin Museum of Art.
— 2006. “Situ Paṇ chen’s Paintings of the Eight Great Siddhas: A Fateful Gift to Derge and the World.” In R. Linrothe, ed., Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas. New York: Rubin Museum of Art. 2006, pp. 92-107.
[i] Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas and ’Be lo Tshe dbang kun khyab. Sgrub brgyud karma kaṃ tshang brgyud par rin po che’i rnam par thar pa rab ’byams nor bu zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba (Garland/Mala of Moon-Stone Jewels: Biographies of the Successive Masters of the Karma Bka’ brgyud School). 2 vols. New Delhi: D. Gyaltsan and Kesang Legshay, 1972; and Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas. Ta’i si tur ’bod pa karma bstan pa’i nyin byed rang tshul drangs por brjod pa dri bral shel gyi me long (The Autobiography and Diaries of Si tu Paṇ chen). New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1968, hereafter referred to as Diaries. On these sources see Gene Smith’s “Introduction to The Autobiography and Diaries of Si-tu Paṇ -chen” (1968), republished as “The Diaries of Si tu Paṇ chen” in Among Tibetan Texts (2001), pp. 87-96.]
[ii] Soon thereafter at the Zhamar’s monastic seat of Yangpachen, Si tu was shown old Indian cast-metal figures by a temple steward, who introduced him to the traditional stylistic classifications of Buddhist bronze sculpture. The steward pointed out different types of metal and characteristic shapes as he referenced one of the classic manuals on the evaluation of objects by the fifteenth-century authority Japa Tashi Dargye (Bya pa Bkra shis dar rgyas). David Jackson Patron & Painter: Situ Paṇ chen and the Revival of the Encampment Style. NY: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009. , p. 5 and p. 257, note 15. lha ris sngon nas rtsal bris lta bu’i phyogs mgo dod tsam yong thog kong po sprul sku las kyang thig rtsa ’ga’ zhig bslab/ Si tu Paṇ chen, Diaries, p. 45, line 6.] David Jackson Patron & Painter: Situ Paṇ chen and the Revival of the Encampment Style. NY: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009. , p. 5 and p. 257, note 17.]
[iv] David Jackson Patron & Painter: Situ Paṇ chen and the Revival of the Encampment Style. NY: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009. , p. 5, and p. 257, note 20. This was also at Yangs pa can Monastery.
[v] grub chen brgyad kyi zhal thang sgar bris ltar gyi skya ris tshon mdangs dang bcas bris nas… Si tu Paṇ chen, Diaries, p. 140, line 7. Si tu’s depictions were variously arranged and combined in 9, 5, 3 painting sets and single paintings by later copyists. Jackson (2009), p. 258, note 39. For more on this set see: Jackson “Situ Paṇ chen’s Paintings of the Eight Great Siddhas: A Fateful Gift to Derge and the World” (2006).]
[vi] “Under the watchful and often hostile eye of the Tibetan government, the Karmapa’s seat, Tsurphu Monastery, remained suppressed into Situ’s time. Additionally, several prominent Kagyu leaders died young, such as the Seventh Situ (age sixteen) in 1698 and the Eleventh Karmapa (age twenty-six) in 1702. This was followed by the sudden loss of both the Eighth Zhamarpa and Twelfth Karmapa in 1732 under questionable circumstances the Chinese border en route to meet members of Manchu imperial family. Two Gelug lamas of the Kokonor area heavily invested in the Qing court, the Lcang skya and Thu’u bkwan incarnations, claimed to have caused their deaths by use of magic, in order to deny them access to the most powerful patrons of the time. Tashi Tsering, “Situ Panchen: His Contribution and Legacy,” Lungta 13 (Winter 2000).
Also, 2006. “Situ Paṇ chen’s Paintings of the Eight Great Siddhas: A Fateful Gift to Derge and the World.” In R. Linrothe, ed., Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas. New York: Rubin Museum of Art. 2006, pp. 92-107.
[vii] Si tu’s relationship with the “king” of Lijiang (or more properly, the deposed heir apparent) Mu De (木德, 1714-1777), is by contrast more personal. According to Si tu’s portrayal in his own diaries, the kings of Lijiang were cultivated and educated practitioners and patrons. Si tu recalls that the most famous of them, Mu Zeng, composed praises to Tārā in Chinese, which Si tu translated into Tibetan. This would be evidence that Si tu had a solid grounding in Chinese even before traveling to Yunnan.
[viii] In his biography it records “Due to bla ma Karma’s urging, Si tu gave him the “Aspirational Commentary on Mahāmudrā” (phyag chen smon ‘grel by the Third Karma pa Rang byung rdo rje) and paintings of the Six Ornaments [of India], and several paintings (zhal thang ‘ga’ re) to Dran thang sangs rgas [all] painted by his own hand.” klu chu mdor bzhugs/ rgyal lam yig zhu bar btang / sku’i gcung bla ma karmas bskul nas phyag chen smon ’grel dang / rgyan drug gi sku thang / dran thang sangs rgas la zhal thang ’ga’ re phyag ris gnang / Si tu and ’Be lo, p. 507, lines 6-7.
[ix] Si tu Paṇ chen, Diaries, p. 149, line 1. One can see that this composition is especially telling of Si tu’s familiarity with the internal visual language of Chinese painting. Here he pairs the greatest scholastic authorities of Indian Buddhism with bamboo, the Chinese symbol of the scholar, which bends with the changing political winds but does not break. This is not a random decorative choice but suggests that Si tu grasps the underlying meaning of the Chinese conventions he employs. For this complete set of compositions see: Namgyal Institute of Tibetology 1962. rGyan drug mchog gnyis [The Six Ornaments and Two Supreme Masters]. Gangtok: Namgyal Institute of Tibetology. Second reprint, 1972; Jackson (2009), p. 121-2.]