A Superb Mongolian Cloth Applique Thangka Depicting Dancing Citipati

A Superb Mongolian Cloth Applique Thangka Depicting Dancing Citipati

This finely sewn Mongolian Buddhist Cloth Applique Thangka depicts dancing Citipati Deities.  The skeleton figures, representing worldly spirits, in Tibetan Cham dances are often seen as jesters or servants for other minor worldly gods such as Yama. These Cham dancing skeletons, like the other characters found in dance such as the deer and yak-headed servants of Yama, are generally only found in narrative vignettes if found at all in Tibetan paintings. The most common dance represented in painting is generally known descriptively as the Black Hat Dance and specifically understood to be the Vajrakilaya Cham dance. There will, of course, be images or random skeletons found in wrathful deity paintings or in the many depictions of the charnel grounds where the relevant Sanskrit and Tibetan texts explicitly state that skeletons are found in cemeteries”  Jeff Watt 4-2004  Himalayan Resources

Thangka appliqué is a technique of creating thangkas using not paint, but cloth and precious silk. Just like thangka paintings, thangka applique is a sacred art, and appliqués follow the iconography for Buddhist deities as laid down in Buddhist scripture. The art of appliqué first began among the Huns of Central Asia to embroider saddle blankets. Gradually, it spread east across the Silk Road and was adopted by Tibetans and Mongolians as religious art.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Buddhist Art and Asian Arts

Exhibited:  The Art of Compassion: Buddhist Art from the Todd Barlin Collection 2018

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