This is a lovely original 24 K Gold Manjusri Thangka painting from Nepal. I brought it back with me from my last trip there knowing someone would love to have it. The detailed work is excellent with vibrant colors.
Some infomation on the deity Manjusri:
Manjusri ( Manjushri )is known as the Bodhisattva of Wisdom and Knowledge .
Manjusri is closely associated with the goddess Prajnaparamita, who is not his partner, but the personification of knowledge, symbolized by the book on the lotus. Hence the flower holding the book in his left hand. Manjusri is the Buddhist counterpart of the Hindu god Brahma, who is also depicted with a book (the Vedas).
With his flaming sword, Manjusri ensures that humans will gain knowledge and insight. He cleaves the clouds of ignorance with it, but also uses it in the morning to chase away the demons of the night, and so brings light into the darkness. This darkness may be noted as ignorance.
Manjusri’s right side is considered male and left side considered female. The sward waiving side is male and the book carrying side is female. Perhaps this is why as a whole being Manjusri looks to have male and female features.
According to legend, Manjusri came to Nepal from China over 2,000 years ago to worship the Adi Buddha. Surrounded by mountains, in the middle of the country, lay a large lake. In the middle of the lake bloomed a lotus on which the Adi Buddha, Svayambhu (the “self-Creating One”), manifested himself as a flame.
The bodhisattva smote the rocks with his sword near Chobar so that the water flowed away and the valley was able to be cultivated. The present-day Kathmandu Valley lies at the location of the former lake, as ha been revealed geologically. He moved the lotus with the flame to a hill on the west side. Later, the stupa of Svayambhunath was erected over it. Manjushri is depicted in red, yellow, golden yellow, white, or black, and almost always sits in lotus position. He is eternally young and muscular, and has some twenty variations.
Manjushri is referred to as an emanation of both the dhyani Buddha Amitabha, who is also Avalokiteshvara’s spiritual father, and of Akshobhya. This dual origin can be traced back to the fierce form of Akshobhya, the dharmapala Yamantaka, who can take on a fiercer guise, namely Vajrabhairava, and then be an extremely frightening guise of Manjusri. An earthly incarnation of Manjusri is the great reformer Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa monastic order.
No noticeable flaws in the artwork.There is a small .4" smudge mark in the upper left corner in the blue space part of the painting. I have discounted the painting some for this. Also a slight crease in the canvas center of the painting and when I say slight I mean not heavy a heavy or very noticeable flaw at all but I wanted to point it out.
Painting Size: 20.1" tall and 15.2" wide ( 51.1 cm tall and 38.6 cm wide ) including border. 17.8" tall and 12.8" wide ( 38.1 cm tall and 45.2 cm wide ) excluding border.
