This Paubha was produced for the observance of the Buddhist rite known as Lakshachaitya (Hundred Thousand Stupas). The donor who commissioned it did so to accrue spiritual merit equivalent to that gained by making separate dedications to each of the myriad stupas—Buddhist commemorative monuments—depicted across the painting’s surface. The presiding deity of this rite, the goddess Ushnishavijaya, sits within the largest stupa at the painting’s center, flanked by two bodhisattvas. Images of stupas, interspersed with various divinities, fill the rest of the composition. Depictions of the Paubha’s donor and of various rituals appear on the lower band. The date given in the dedicatory inscription, equivalent to 1412, indicates that this is one of the earliest surviving Nepalese paintings associated with this popular ceremony.
Details
- Title : Myriad Stupas with Ushnishavijaya (Paubha)
- Year : 1412
- Classification : Paintings
- Medium : Opaque watercolour on cloth
- Dimension : Overall: 33 1/4 × 23 in. (84.46 × 58.42 cm) Framed: 53 × 32 3/8 × 2 1/8 in. (134.62 × 82.23 × 5.4 cm)
- Accession No : Object Number: 91.469
- Country/ Geo-location : NEPAL
- Collection : Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
- Credit Line : Zimmerman Family Collection, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund
- Status : NOT ON VIEW
- Exhibition History : 2019: "Dharma and Punya: Buddhist Ritual Art of Nepal", Iris and Gerald B. Cantor Art Gallery, College of The Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, September 5 - December 14, 2019