TANGKA REPRÉSENTANT LE PORTRAIT DE KANHATIBET CENTRAL, MONASTÈRE DE NGOR, VERS 1600Distemper on cloth; with original blue cloth mounts inscribed on the reverse along the top in Tibetan, identifying the painting's subject, and also with restored original red lacquered, gold painted dowel rod; verso inscribed in black ink with 'om, ah, hum' incantations behind each figure and many lines arranged into the form of a stupa,prising Sanskritized and Tibetan prayers and mantras consistent with a formula repeated throughout the Ngorlamdre lineage set of paintings; recto with two separate lines of Tibetan inscription in gold along the bottom red painted border, the second identifying the secondary 'Crooked Made Straight Lineage' sequence of figures within the painting, the first an homage to the central subject, translated:'With the profound advice, release my mind,Performing the benefit of othersWith the practice of vows;To Kanha, I bow.'Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1443Image: 74.5 x 62.8 cm (29 3/8 x 24 3/4 in.);With Silks: 124 x 66 cm (48 3/4 x 26 in.)Provenance: A PORTRAIT THANGKA OF KANHACENTRAL TIBET, NGOR MONASTERY, CIRCA 1600藏中 俄爾寺 約 1600 年 坎哈巴肖像唐卡Published:Marion Boyer, La peinture bouddhiste tibétaine, Paris, 2010, p. 132.Provenance:Private German Collection, acquired in Nepal, 1970sMichael Henss Collection, Zurich, acquired from the above in 2008 A frequent praise of the widely published Ngor lamdre lineage set of paintings that includes this portrait of Kanha is the insightful, nuanced capturing of each central subject's character and legacy. Here, the mahasiddha's soft wispy eyebrows and facial hair frame a calm, encouraging expression befitting Kanha's standing as the principal exponent of the lamdre tradition's 'gradual method'. He is one of the most popular of the 84 Indian tantric great adepts and his epithet (Tib. Nagpopa; 'The Black One') is ascribed to numerous tantric teachings. Kanha occupies a prominent role in the lamdre tradition as the primary disciple of the tradition's first mortal master, Virupa. Before meeting Virupa, Kanha was a Hindu Shaivite yogin and upon thepletion of his training was dispatched to convert a lustful Hindu king and court.The artist portrays Kanha cradling a human skull-cup (kapala) before his chest, which is a fairly ubiquitous attribute used when depicting the early Indian masters of Buddhist tantra. Similar to Kanha's own story, the kapala is rooted in Buddhism's repudiation of the Hindu caste system, its Brahmanical hierarchy, and its seemingly inflexible doctrine of spiritual evolution. The punishment for inadvertently killing a brahmin in Kanha's time was a severe ostracism in which the penitent was banished for twelve years to a desolate crossroads (like a charnel ground) and forced to beg for food with a human skull as an alms bowl, as well as the skull of the brahmin they had slain mounted on a wood staff as a banner (Beer, The Enc