News

There are three standard visual presentations for depicting the Panchen Lama Incarnation and Pre-incarnation Lineage. They can be described as short, medium and long. The shortest of the three numbers thirteen figures [13] in total and the best and most complete example of this is a set of paintings in the collection of Tibet House, New Delhi.

The medium length enumeration and visual depiction adds two more figures - Padmasambhava and Atisha for a total of fifteen [15]. A wood block print edition of the Prajnaparamita Sutra decorated with numerous Buddhas, deities, individual teachers and lineages of teachers and incarnations best highlights the inclusion of the two additional figures of the medium enumeration.

The longest presentation of the incarnation lineage adds four more Indian teachers for a total of nineteen [19] individuals and potentially nineteen individual painted compositions. The numbers of thirteen, fifteen and nineteen are all three based on the central figure of the earliest and most important of the sets being the person of the 3rd Panchen Lama, Lobzang Palden Yeshe (1738-1780). It was during the later life of the 3rd Panchen that the sets of incarnation paintings became widespread and popular.