Library of Congress Receives Special Gifts from His Holiness the Dalai Lama[Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 10:15 a.m.]
Washington, DC:
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. organised an event on
Saturday (17 July) during which the Librarian, Dr.James Billington,
received three gifts to the Library from His Holiness the Dalai Lama
from his Special Envoy Lodi Gyari.The three gifts consist of an
18th century Thangka of the Buddha from the Paksam Trishing collection;
a Mandala offering set; and a golden butter lamp. Gyari
Rinpoche spoke about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to the Library
in February this year, during which he had expressed his desire to make
some gifts to the Library’s collection. Rinpoche described the
significance of the Thangka. He referred to these gifts as
strengthening the bond between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the
United States, 102 years William Rockhill had received some gifts from
the 13th Dalai Lama, which later became a part of the Library’s
collection.Dr Billington, in his remarks, said he was honoured
and humbled to accept these very special gifts from His Holiness. He
said that when His Holiness visited the Library he had the opportunity
to show him the gifts given by his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama, to
William Rockhill in 1908. These included a beautiful thangka and a copy
of the Tibetan text on the perfection of wisdom, both highly symbolic
of the special meeting.Dr Billington said today’s gifts also
have special symbolic significance. He said they reminded him of the
Library’s core mission, to offer the light of wisdom and learning to
the world through preserving a universal collection of knowledge and
creativity for future generations. He said this includes the Library’s
Tibetan collection consisting of nearly 13,000 volumes. Librarian
Billington requested Gyari Rinpoche to thank His Holiness for these
profound gifts, symbolic also of our friendship, and said he welcomed
His Holiness to visit again and again. Dr Billington concluded by
wishing Gyari Rinpoche Tashi Delek.Given below are the descriptions (kindly prepared by Dr Thupten Jinpa) of the special Thangka.THE BUDDHA FROM THE PAKSAM TRISHING (AVADĀNA STORIES) COLLECTIONThis
painting is the central piece of a set of thangkas (Tibetan painted
scrolls) known as Dzegya Paksam Trishing, literally, “the wish-granting
tree of hundred lives,” which depict the stories of the Buddha’s former
births or Jatakas. This particular Tibetan set of paintings of the
Buddha’s birth stories is based on the Sanskrit work Bodhisattva
Avadāna-kalpa-latā (rtogs brjod dpag bsam ‘khri shing) by the Kashmiri
poet Ksemendra and completed by his son Somentra in 1052 CE, which
contains 108 stories. Alongside the famed Jatakamala (Garland of
Births) of Aryasura (fourth century CE), Ksemendra’s Avadāna-kalpa-latā
became highly celebrated in Tibet, giving rise to the tradition of
creating thangka paintings based on these texts. Generally, Avadāna set
contains twenty three thangkas with the historical Buddha and his two
principle disciples as the theme of the central thangka. In
this thangka, the central image is that of the historical Buddha
Shakyamuni, who is flanked by his two principle disciples Shariputra
(on the left) and Maugaliputra (on the right). On the sides of the two
disciples are, respectively, the gods Brahma on the left and Indra on
the right, who, according to the tradition, made the request to the
Buddha to turn the wheel of Dharma. Below, on the left, are the kings
Bimbisara and Utrayana, and on the right are the king Prasenajit and
householder Anathapindika, all of who were important benefactors of the
Buddha and his monastic community.In the upper part of the
thangka, at the top in the middle is a cluster of four figures. They
are, in the uppermost, Aryasura, the fourth century author of the famed
Jatakamala, which presents a collection of 34 birth stories of the
Buddha; on the left, Tsongkapa, the famed fourteenth century founder of
the Geluk School, who instituted the tradition of the public teaching
of the Jatakamala at the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa; on the right,
Phakpa Lama, the thirteenth century Sakya ruler who was involved in
commissioning the translation of Ksemendra’s poetic work on the 108
birth stories. Immediately above the Buddha is the Fifth Dalai Lama
(seventeenth century), who supervised the printing of the bilingual
edition of Ksemendra’s text, and may have also been responsible for
inventing the tradition of painting the Avadāna stories on thangkas.
Now, in the upper part of the thangka, both on the left and on the
right are clusters of three figures each. In the left, at the top,
right and left, are respectively, Shongton Lotsawa, who, in the
thirteenth century, first translated the Avadāna-kalpa text, the basis
of the set of paintings to which this thangka belongs; Ksemendra, the
Kashmiri poet, the author of the Avadāna text; and the Indian master
Buddhibhadra. In the right cluster are, at the top, Zhalu Lotsawa, who
revised the translation of the Avadāna text and produced a bi-lingual
edition; below him on the left is Somendra, the son of Ksemendra; and
on the right is the Indian master Suryashri. Together, these figures on
the upper part of the thangka narrate the historical development of the
tradition of the Avadāna stories in both in India and in Tibet.Original
inscriptions on the back of the thangka states that this thangka was
part of a set commissioned by the famed eighteenth century Geluk master
Phurchok Ngawang Jhampa, and painted in the style of Menri tradition.–Report filed by Bhuchung K Tsering of ICT
