Portrait of the Indian Monk Atisha

Portrait of the Indian Monk Atisha. Tibet, Distemper and gold on cloth, Image: 19 1/2 x 13 15/16 in. (49.5 x 35.4 cm) Framed: 32 13/16 x 21 11/16 in. (83.3 x 55.1 cm). Atisha was the abbot of the great Vikramashila monastery in north India, one of the mahaviharas who granted the learned degree of pandita, here indicated by his yellow hat. In 1042 he traveled to Tibet at the invitation of the Western Tibetan king Yeshe ‘Od to help purify Buddhist practices there. Atisha’s authority was rooted in his lineage, an unbroken chain of pupil-guru relationships going back to the Buddha himself. This portrait of Atisha, among the oldest preserved, shows him as an enlightened being with golden skin and halo, seated on an elaborate jeweled throne. His right hand is held in the teaching gesture and he holds a bound palm-leaf manuscript in his left.