A lama of the Gelug Order

A high lama clad in maroon and gold brocade gazes into the roiling visionary detail of his own kaleidoscopic hagiography. Painted in the cosmopolitan style of the nineteenth century, the master painter has here drawn upon artistic approaches developed in India, China, Nepal, and of course Tibet itself, allowing the creation of multidimensional landscapes where the heavens, the hells, and the earth all meet one another.

At the bottom left is the fierce guardian Palden Lhamo, riding her mule in a hellish sea of blood. At the top right is the meditation deity Guhyasamaja, whose visualization the main lama at the center of the painting learned from his deceased teacher at the top left. This meditation deity has appeared here emerging from a heavenly cloud. Just beneath the Gelug master, a disciple presents him with a mandala offering, a symbolic microcosmos presented to visualized buddhas. Hyperreal chrysanthemums, fog peeking over mountain peaks, thick black outlining of Guhyasamaja—all of these visual approaches to depicting meditative experience enhance its simultaneously ordinary and transcendent essence.

While his pointed yellow hat confirms that this is a lama of the Gelug Order like the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, his identity awaits further research.