A distemper and gold on cloth painting titled "Portrait of the Indian Monk Atisha," Tibet, early to mid-12th century, one of the earliest surviving Tibetan portrayals of the Bengali scholar who traveled to Tibet in 1042 and whose teaching shaped the second diffusion of Buddhism there. Held today by the Metropolitan Museum of Art under accession 1993.479, Asian Art department, Gift of Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 1993.
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionPortraits of Atisha within the Kadam tradition he founded served lineage veneration, honoring him as the source of a teaching transmission his followers continued, the same devotional function later served by portraits of other lineage founders across Tibetan Buddhist schools. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Bengali directly: "surviving Tibetan portrayals of the Bengali scholar who traveled to Tibet in 1042 and whose teaching shaped the second diffusion of Buddhism there."
Belongs to Tradition
Depicts
The Met's own title for this painting names the subject outright, "Atisha," a direct identification rather than a bare thematic tag.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.