The Buddha Shakyamuni with sixteen Buddhist elders

In this thangka (devotional painting) Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, is shown sitting on his lotus pedestal supported by a lion’s throne. He holds an alms bowl in his left hand, while his right is in the earth-touching gesture, which signifies the moment of his enlightenment. The Buddha is attended by two disciples and flanked by the sixteen arhats, Indian disciples whom the Buddha instructed to spread his doctrine throughout the world. Above Shakyamuni is a row of other buddhas, and at bottom the deity Vaishravana sits flanked by the four directional guardians, two gods of wealth each carrying a jewel-spitting mongoose, and on the extreme left the monk who commissioned the painting.

Dharmatala, the walking figure second from the right at bottom, is the idealized form of the great Tang dynasty monk-explorer and translator Xuanzang, a main character in the popular Chinese novel Journey to the West. Dharmatala, accompanied by a tiger, carries a flywhisk and a prototype of the modern knapsack, which holds his books.

This early-style thangka from Central Tibet depicts the Buddha as much larger than the surrounding figures in individual compartments. Also characteristic of this style are the lotus scrollwork inside the Buddha’s halo and the little blossoms floating in the background.