A thangka of a Sangpo Bumtri


Tibet, 19th centuryDistemper on cloth; holding a staff in the crook of his elbow, the Bon deity flanked by two standing attendants and surrounded by the two hundred and fifty Enlightened Ones, the reverse inscribed. 85cm (33 1/2) x 67.5cm (26 1/2in)
|Provenance: Ravi Kumar, ParisFournier Collection, Paris, acquired from the above in the 1980'sSangpo Bumtri is one of the Four Transcendent Lords, one of the main subjects in Bon religious art. Paintings of the Four Transcendent Lords are indeed found in almost every Bon temple across Tibet and the Himalayas.The subject of the Four Transcendent Lords is found in the Ziji, the twelve volume, sixty-four chapter biography of Tonpa Shenrab, the founder of the religion, where they are the principal deities in the funeral ritual of Tonpa Shenrab. Typically, each deity is depicted surrounded by two hundred and fifty 'enlightened ones', Sanggye, making a total of a thousand for the full set.