The representations of the Bodhisats are directly reminiscent of the artistic traditions which were prevalent in Orissa in the time of the Pala kings, who were the last champions and patrons of Indian Buddhism. A Tibetan painting discovered at Tuen Huang by Sir Aurel Stein, which is probably the most ancient extant Tibetan picture (c. loth century) represents Avalokitei vara, whose mission it is to liberate humanity from the Eight Great Perils. This painting, which is now in the British Museum, shows a definite affinity with an Avalokitegvara in the Fine Arts Museum of Boston which A. K. Coomaraswamy believes to be an Indian work of the Pala or Sena period (12th century). So great is the conservatism of Tibetan artists that very little difference can be observed between the loth century painting discovered by Sir Aurel Stein and a similar composition of modern date which was brought from Tibet by Jacques Bacot and is now in the Musee Guimet. (See INDIAN AND SINHALESE ART AND ARCHAEOL OGY.) The influence of the Indian tradition—it is possible to go further and say of the Ajanta tradition—is particularly marked in a painting in the Musee Guimet representing the Bodhisats Avalo kitesvara and Kshitigarbha seated in an attitude of royal ease.
Tibetan artists never introduced any innovations in the repre sentation of the fierce, terrible and threatening deities which derive from Siva (Mahakdla). Divinities of this kind are not to be found in the most ancient compositions which depict episodes from the life of the Buddha Sa.kya-muni; the most that appears from time to time is a genius (yaksha) subduing heretics. All other paintings, whether their subjects are Bodhisats or saints, include representa tions of fierce deities, often accompanied by their female counter parts. Pictures of this kind already existed in India, but the Tibetans greatly developed the cult of these deities of Saivite origin. The Manchu Emperors who ruled over China in the 18th century appear to have had a special taste for pictures of this kind, and Tibetan Buddhic art had great vogue at Peking at the end of that century. Paintings ordered by the Emperor Chien lung and executed at Peking under direction of the Grand Lama of Peking are extant. One of them represents the fierce goddess Sridevi (Lha-mo) ; it is carried out in the purest Tibetan style except that there are certain details of execution which are clearly Chinese, especially in the treatment of the mule on which the goddess is mounted and the emblems with which the frame of the picture is adorned. This is a good example of Lamaist painting dated 1777, which, though executed in China, shows, with the ex ception of certain details, all the characteristics of Lamaist works of art. An inscription in four languages, Chinese, Mongol, Man
chu and Tibetan, says: "In the forty-second year of Chien-lung, an Imperial decree was issued ordering the lchang-skya-hu-tog-thu (Grand Lama of Peking) to draw holy :mages, following the text of the sacred books, in order to do homage to the auspicious god dess Srffmati (Sridevi). . . ." A considerable number of religious pictures were executed during the reign of the Emperor Chien lung by Tibetan lamas at Pekin, and special mention should be made of the paintings showing definite Tibetan characteristics which represent the divinities of Confucianism and Taoism.
To return to the normal work of Tibetan artists, it is necessary to mention a number of paintings representing the saints of Indian Buddhism and Lamaism. The clearly marked Indian influence visible in the pictures of the group of the great sorcerers has al ready been mentioned; the same influence, becoming gradually attenuated, may be seen in the series of pictures showing the life of some great saint, such as the famous Atiga, who died in A.D. 1058 (P1. II., fig. I.), or the lchang-skya Rol-pa'i rdo-ye (Lalita vasjra) (1736-95), the same who had the picture of the goddess S'ridevi painted at the order of the Emperor Chien-lung. The latter is not an ancient composition; both the subject and the painting itself are modern, and show the characteristic Tibetan architecture of the monasteries of Dgah-ldan and Bra-gis lhun-po (Tachilhunpo), placed on rocks treated in a way which shows Chinese influence (see at the top and in the middle the monas tery of Brag-dkar [White Stone] ). The saint, who is seated in the European fashion in the middle of the picture on the right, carries the book and sword, the attributes of his patron the cele brated reformer Tsong Kha-pa (A.D. 1355-1417). These attri butes are also those of Manjugri, the Bodhisat of transcendental wisdom, who inspired Tsong Kha-pa. It is for this reason that a magic representation of Manjugri appears in the centre of the painting under the aspect of the fierce Yamantaka with the head of a bull. Maitreya, the future Buddha, is shown in a medallion placed in the upper part of the picture on the left. The saint him self appears, after his death (at the top of the picture on the right) in the trifoliate niche of a stupd; he is being mourned by his dis ciples, and divinities are rising from the clouds to receive him. The painting showing the learned Atiga (I Ith century) is less elab orate, and is clearly derived from a more ancient original.