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Requires Photography

The Third Panchen Lama

Tibetan
18th century
Object Place: Tibet

Medium/Technique Distemper and gold on cotton
Dimensions 70.5 x 43 cm (27 3/4 x 16 15/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number19.62
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia
ClassificationsPaintings

DescriptionPainting in hanging scroll (thangka) format, but without original decorative borders.

The third Panchen Lama sits on an elaborate throne wearing intricately-detailed brocade robes. He is surrounded by figures, running clockwise from upper left: Yamantaka and Shakti in yab-yum, Amitabha Buddha, the seventh Dalai Lama, another Lama flanked by Vajropani and Manjusri, White Brahma, Lhamo, and Beg-tse. A long inscription appears at the base of the painting, in gold on a red margin.
InscriptionsOn obverse: in gold paint on a red background, in Tibetan, a long inscription identifying the subject. For a transcription of the inscription, which has not been translated, see xerox of inventory notes.
Provenance1919, William Sturgis Bigelow, Boston, MA; 1919, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accesstion Date: May 6, 1919)