pigment and water-soluble binding agent on fabric, image size 77.5 x 50.5 cm, smudged, holes, (Hr) We are grateful to Dipl. Ing. Uwe Niebuhr, BA MA for his assistance in cataloguing this work.

This thangka depicts the "Descent into Hell" of Delok Lingza Chökyi, a nomad woman who is said to have lived near Derge in the Kham region of eastern Tibet in the 16th century. The word "Delok" (Tib. 'das log) refers to people who have "returned from the dead".

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bardo Thödöl (Tib. bar do thos grol) describes the transitional period of 49 days between death and rebirth. During this time, Deloks go through the afterlife in a kind of near-death experience, visiting hell, where they witness the fate of the dead and their suffering. Eventually, Deloks are sent back to the world of the living with a message from Yama, the god of death, to share their experiences and move people to a spiritual way of life. The biography of Delok Lingza Chökyi (Tib. 'das log gling bza' chos skyid rnam thar) was written down and is depicted in thangka paintings as a continuous narrative reminiscent of comic strips.

In this thangka, the upper third shows Lingza Chökyi in the earthly world, where she dies of an illness and gradually realises her own death, while she is already mourned by her family. The narrative starts at the top left and unfolds clockwise, around the mountain of the realm of the dead, surrounded by a wall, in the centre of the picture. Outside the wall is a landscape in which the dead wait for the decision that the Lord of Death will make about their fate.

Lingza Chökyi is called to the afterlife by a voice, and she soon finds herself on a mountain in a landscape, which can be seen on the right side of the picture. Lingza Chökyi wanders through the landscape and meets different people, listening to their stories. By the aforementioned wall of the realm of the dead, she witnesses Yama judging the dead. This god is depicted with a reddish-brown body, an angry face and upstanding hair. He is standing on a large lotus, wrapped in robes and with boots. Yama holds a staff in his right hand, and reads from the "Mirror of Kharma" the merits of the persons who step in front of him one by one. According to the amount of merits and sins, one white and one black deity place balls on a scale: a black one for each sin, a white one for each spiritual merit.

Lingza Chökyi overhears many judgments, before she, too, has to appear before Yama. However, instead of judging her, Yama sends her, together with a companion, on a path that leads beyond the wall through all imaginable hells. This is how Lingza Chökyi is supposed to learn about all the forms of suffering that awaiting sinners. These scenes are depicted on the thangka in the lower left half of the picture. At the end of her descent into hell, Lingza Chökyi once more finds herself before Yama, who now explains to her that she ended up in the ‘bardo’ by mistake. He eventually sends her back to her earthly body, urging her never to forget the consequences of virtuous and evil deeds, and asking her to tell everyone about this.

Thangkas depicting Delok Lingza Chökyi’s descent into hell are extremely rare. Although age has left its mark on this painting, both the arrangement of the scenes and their artistic execution are truly exceptional. A thangka of comparable quality is hard to find.