A LARGE THANGKA DEPICTING MAHAKALA, TIBET, 18TH-19TH CENTURY

Distemper on cloth. Fiercely depicted, the four-armed, four-headed wrathful deity engulfed in flames and standing atop a prostrate figure holding a skull cup and flaying knife in his main hands and a sword aloft in his secondary right hand. His blue-skinned body is richly adorned with jewelry, a garland of severed heads, and a tiger skin, with each head wearing a skull crown. He is surrounded by smaller images of various wrathful deities, all amid colorful swirling clouds.

Provenance: Acquired by the father of the present owner in Tibet around 1970 and thence by descent. Dr. David Templeman, a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism and Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash Asia Institute, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has previously appraised the present lot.
Condition: Extensive wear, fading, creases, folds, fraying to edges, minor losses to pigments, soiling, and stains, overall presenting well.

Dimensions: Size 156 x 132 cm

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related thangka depicting Mahakala, 146 x 213 cm, dated to the early 18th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 69.72.

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