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Lamaist Assemblage with 17 Divinities

Tibetan
18th–19th century
Object Place: Tibet

Medium/Technique Distemper on cotton
Dimensions Overall: 80.5 x 59cm (31 11/16 x 23 1/4in.)
Other (Image): 44 x 29cm (17 5/16 x 11 7/16in.)
Credit Line Denman Waldo Ross Collection
Accession Number17.749
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia
ClassificationsPaintings

DescriptionPainting in hanging scroll (thangka) format, no streamers or veil.

Central 6-armed deity, probably Vasudhara (the goddess of wealth), sits with right leg pendant and supported by a vase. She holds a mala in her upper right hand, a cintamani in her middle right hand, and her lower right hand is in varada mudra. She holds a sutra in her upper left hand, a stalk of grain in her middle left hand, and a vase in her lower left hand. The vases identify her with Kubera/Kuvera, the god of wealth, who is her consort. Surrounding her are eight forms of a green-skinned female deity, each holding a lotus stem in her left hand while making the varada mudra with her right. These might be variants of Green/Syama Tara. At the top are Shakyamuni at center, 4-armed Avalokiteshvara Shadakshari at right, and another 4-armed yellow Bodhisattva at left. At the bottom is a ring of deities. Running counterclockwise, they are: Mahakala (? - holding a jewel-spitting mongoose), Mahakala Brahmanarupa, Kubera, Lhamo, and a 12-armed dancing Ganesh.
InscriptionsOn reverse, brief devanagari inscription - to be read.
Provenance1917, Denman Waldo Ross, Cambridge, MA; Sept. 30, 1913, loan of Ross to the MFA; 1917, gift of Ross to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 15, 1917)