Lineage Painting Set of the Ngor Tradition
The paintings in this gallery belong to a Lamdre Lineage set created at Ngor Ewam Monastery in Tsang, Tibet. The Sakya School, of which Ngor is a sub-school, maintains hundreds of lineages of Buddhist teachings that were propagated by Indian scholars and siddhas. Considered the most important of these teachings is the 'Path Together with the Result' (Sanskrit: Margapala. Tibetan: lam dre bu tang che pa). The set presented here probably totals approximately thirty in number. More than twenty paintings are known to survive.
The important iconographic elements of each composition are:
1. Central Figure (and lineage affiliation)
2. Surrounding Lineage
3. Deity/ies in the Bottom Register
4. Miscellaneous ornamentation, throne decoration, minor deities
Each composition depicts a single figure from the lineage of teachers of the Sakya Margapala/lamdre lineage. The set as a whole depicts the entire Lamdre lineage up to the time of its creation - likely in the late 16th century based on the last two teachers often being the 8th abbot of Ngor, Muchen Sanggye Rinchen (1450-1524), followed by the 10th abbot of Ngor, Ngorchen Konchog Lundrub (1497-1557).