Painting Set: Footprints & Handprints (Dalai Lama Set)
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A set of paintings depicting the previous incarnations of the Dalai Lamas with each composition accompanied by the hand and footprints of the 5th Dalai Lama. Except for the painting depicting the 5th Dalai Lama, all the paintings have 12 figures in total.
In each painting, the central figure is surrounded by two figures at the top, two figures to his immediate left and right, and two deities at the bottom. The two figures at the top and to the immediate left and right can be identified as four figures from the Dalai Lama's long pre-incarnations list which he composed in 1680. Each of those four figures actually has another minor figure depicted next to them. These additional four are from a separate incarnation lineage that is not of the Dalai Lamas. The most likely candidates are the pre-incarnations of the Panchen Lamas or Desi Sangye Gyatso. Additionally, each of the paintings has a figure at the top center of the paintings which is not part of any incarnation lineage, rather these are teachers or deities connected to the central figure.
It is possible that the painting of Nyatri Tsanpo is the first painting in the set because the surrounding figures are the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh pre-incarnations according to the long pre-incarnations list. These are the earliest pre-incarnations depicted in this set.
See this set for other paintings depicting this pre-incarnations list.
Jeff Watt 4-2007, updated Nick Dharmadi 6-2026
