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A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s2: Section III. Tibet and Nepāl

A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s2

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English

Section III. Tibet and Nepāl

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The plastic art of both Tibet and Nepāl is Indian in origin and essentially one. According to Tāranāth the style of the ancient Nepalese school was based on that of the 'Eastern Painters in Bengal', who may be assigned to the eighth century. Nothing at all so old seems to be now in existence. No example of either Tibetan or Nepalese artistic sculpture in stone has come to my notice. The plastic art of both countries is represented by images mostly of copper or bronze, small in size and comparatively recent in date, none, perhaps, being more than three or four centuries old. The better examples seem to come chiefly from Tibet, but the labels in collections are not always very precise. Indian civilization having reached the valley of Nepāl many centuries before it penetrated the plateau of Tibet, the presumption is that the almost complete identity of style in the two countries must be the result of Tibetan copying of Nepalese models.

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M. de Milloué gives a summary account of Tibetan fine-art work in copper, which I translate for the benefit of Indian readers unacquainted with French:—

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'Copper is found both native and in the form of pyrites in Tibet, where it is wrought with uncommon perfection. Several localities are well known for their famous foundries, which supply the whole of the Buddhist East with statuettes of divinities. Lhasa has a special reputation for small figures in gilt copper, which are esteemed the more the smaller they are. Its productions are easily recognized by their graceful and somewhat arch (*mièvre*) style. The statuettes made by the monks and craftsmen of Tashilumpo are equally esteemed. Most of the bronze statuettes come from the workshops of the Tsang and Khams provinces. The bronzes from the region last named are famous for the perfection of their execution in details and their wonderful *patina*, qualities especially noticeable in the examples which go back to the sixteenth or seventeenth century, notwithstanding the impurity of the metal. Tsiamdo, Jaya, Bathang, and Lithang seem to be the principal centres of this art industry, which possesses an eminently religious character.'²

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² ^2 *Bod-Youl ou Tibet* (Paris, 1906), p. 130. Tsang and Khams lie to the east.

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A special characteristic of Tibetan art is the abundance of realistic, highly individualized portrait statuettes of holy Lamas and other Buddhist saints. How far such reputed portraits are actual likenesses and how far merely typical forms it is impossible to say. They may be authentic portraits transmitted by tradition through contemporary paintings. The Tibetan artists are, I believe, usually Lamas.

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A good example of such a traditional portrait is the seated image of the 'Dalai Lama of the Third Rebirth’, also known as the ‘Apostle of the Mongols’, whom he converted to Buddhism in the sixteenth century (1543-89). The original is in the large collection formed by Prince E. Ukhtomskij, now in the Museum of H.I.M. Alexander III, St. Petersburg, which has been carefully catalogued by Professor Grünwedel, to whom I am indebted for the photograph of the Apostle reproduced in Fig. 144.¹ The presentment is thoroughly realistic, and possibly may be from the life. No criterion seems to exist by which the age of such images can be determined.

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¹ See Prof. Grünwedel’s *Mythologie des Buddhismus in Tibet und der Mongolei, Führer durch die Sammlung des Fürsten E. Ukhtomskij* (Leipzig, 1900), cited as *Guide*; and his illustrated Catalogue of the collection in Russian (*Bibliotheca Buddhica*, No. vi, 2 fasc., St. Petersburg, 1905). The terrible Tibetan name of the Apostle is *mKʻas-grub-bSod-nams-rgya-mtso*.

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FIG. 144. The Apostle of the Mongols; bronze in Ukhtomskij Collection. (From a photo. supplied by Prof. Grünwedel = *Guide*, Abb. 54.)

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FIG. 145. Gilt bronze statuette of Tsong-kapa, about 5 inches high; Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. (From a photo. by permission of H. Balfour, Esq., Curator.)

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The Prince's collection contains many equally good portrait statuettes. One notable portrait is that of the Lama reproduced in *Guide*, Abb. 72. An ancient image in Chinese crackled porcelain vividly represents in Indian pose a follower of the teacher known as Bhaisajya-guru, or Man-la, the ‘Buddha of Medicine’ (*Guide*, Abb. 94).

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Other artistic examples of the same portrait class are in the Musée Guimet, among which may be specially noted the bronze images of Padmasambhava and Tsong-kapa, the founder of 'Yellow Lamaism' (*Petit Guide Illustré*, pp. 143, 144).¹ A reproduction of a statuette of Tsong-kapa from an original in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, is here given (Fig. 145). Portraits of this kind do not come from Nepāl, so far as I know.

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¹ The illustrations in Prof. Grünwedel's publications and the *Petit Guide Illustré* of the Musée Guimet being executed by the half-tone process it is not possible to utilize the permission to reproduce them kindly granted.

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The effigies of Buddhas and deities, although similar in style to the human portrait statuettes, are necessarily more conventional. They are often gilt and decorated with turquoises. The goddess Tārā in her various forms is, perhaps, the favourite, but many deities are represented.² In Plate XLI illustrations are given of three—an unnamed teacher; the Bodhisattva Manjusrī; and his consort, Sarasvatī, goddess of music and poetry. The last-named object, which is gracefully and freely modelled, closely resembles the best Nepalese work.

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² The well-executed nearly black bronze Tārā in the Pitt-Rivers Museum holds in her left hand a *phallus* of amethyst-colour glass.

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It would be easy to multiply similar examples. The British Museum collection includes several specimens of good quality, which have not been utilized because the collection awaits arrangement and at present is not conveniently placed for study. The illustrations given are fairly representative of the style, and enable the reader to form a good idea of the Lamas' remarkable skill in modelling, portraiture, and finish.

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Nepalese bronze statuettes of any considerable artistic excellence seem to be much less numerous than the Tibetan. The coppersmiths in Nepāl are more inclined to exercise their craft upon elaborate utensils used in worship than on images, and it is not easy to find Nepalese statuettes deserving of notice. Berlin has none, and it cannot be said with certainty that any of the Pitt-Rivers specimens come from Nepāl. Mr. Havell has reproduced (his Plate XLIV) a cleverly modelled four-armed figure, supposed, rightly or wrongly, to be Kuvera or Jambhala, the god of riches, which is an effective, though ugly, 'personification of materialism and the worldly life.' A Tibetan gilt bronze image of the same deity, fairly well executed, is in the Pitt-Rivers Museum. It has only two arms, and is about 5 inches high. The wasp-waisted Tārās, which Mr. Havell admires vastly, present mere parodies of the human form which can be described as idealized superhuman bodies only by extremely enthusiastic critics. More or less similar specimens are described and illustrated by Dr. Coomaraswamy in the *Burlington Magazine*, May, 1910.

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Many of the Tibetan and Nepalese images are purely commercial products of no artistic value. Others, although elaborately executed, are too monstrous and grotesque to deserve rank as works of art.

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