Distinguishing “Set” from “Series” in Tibetan Painting

• Published in: Archives of Asian art 2014-01, Vol.64 (1), p.59-73
• Main Author: Repo, Joona
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abbots; Art and Visual Culture; Art collecting; Art commissions; Art galleries & museums; Art teachers; Asian art; Asian Studies; Buddhism; Cultural Studies; Deities; Lamas; Mandalas; Patronage; Teachers; Tibetan art; Tibeto Burman languages
• ISSN: 0066-6637; 1944-6497; 1944-6497
• DOI: 10.1353/aaa.2014.0014

According to descriptions by both Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundrub and Ngaripa Sangye Phuntsok, the painting was commissioned by Ngorchen himself and was the first of a set of eleven paintings.10 An inscription on the painting further tells us that it was commissioned to fulfill the wishes of Ngorchen's teacher, Buddhas'ri, after his passing.11 Two other extant paintings from this set are known, one painting of the ninth-century maha siddhas Viru pa and Krsnapa in the Gilbert H. Kinney collection and one paintin g of Sonam Tsemo (bsod nams rtse mo, 1142-1182) and Dragpa Gyaltsen (grags pa rgyal mtshan, 1147-1216) in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Fig. 13).12 Both of these paintings have golden inscriptions and each depicts two lineage figures facing each other at the center of the composition, under a torana held up by three pillars rising from vases, one on each side of the two figures. [...]it is interesting to note that in the inscriptions on both of these sixteenth-century Lamdre lineage paintings the term ''bsdus'' is used by the later owner Sakyapa Ngawang Kunga Sonam when referring to the series of paintings as a whole. If we assume that the Sakya throneholder Ngawang Kunga Sonam's inscriptions on the backs of the Buddhas'ri and Konchog Lhundrub paintings mark the finalization of the series, the result would be a group of twenty-one paintings, or perhaps twentytwo, if Namkha Pelzang, who is recorded as the last of the three patrons, included a painting of himself in the series. [...]even if Lhachog Sengge had requested his students to continue adding to the series, this vision would not have had a fixed number of paintings and would not have constituted a ''set'' under the definitions given in the Introduction. According to the inscriptions, one group of such woven thangkas was commissioned by the Ninth Panchen Lama from the Capital Brocade Silk Factory in Hangzhou in 1912, and is still housed at Tashilhunpo.34 The xylograph prints were also used as a basis for the creation of slightly variant depictions of the Panchen Lamas, for example at the Qing court in Beijing, where more emphasis and space was given for landscape.