pigment and water-soluble binding agent on fabric, image size 103 x 61 cm, overall dimensions c. 109 x 64.5 cm, creased, rubbed, (Hr)

We are grateful to Dipl. Ing. Uwe Niebuhr, BA MA for his assistance in cataloguing this work.

This Newar scroll painting (skt. paubha) depicts one of the most important deities of the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. The group of Buddhist-Hindu Newars refers to this deity with the name of Bunga-dya or Karunamaya. Others call her Rato Matsyendranath or Red Padmapani Lokesvara as also Red Avalokitesvara. On the one hand, the deity is worshipped as a rain god, on the other it is also regarded as the bodhisattva of compassion and belongs to a group of four deities who are venerated in the cult of Avalokitesvara Matsyendranath in the valley of Kathmandu. Bunga-dya or Rato Matsyendrnath is the only one of these four deities who resides in two different temples during the year: six months in the Machhendranath temple in Lalitpur (formerly Patan), the other half of the year in the temple of Bungamati, about six kilometres to the south. Twice a year the god still changes its abode in a great procession (Skt. jatra), whereby the red statue of Bunga-dya or Rato Matsyendranath is ritually carried through the streets to the respective temple by human hands in a twenty-metre-high processional chariot with four huge wheels. The red Bunga-dya or Rato Matsyendranath is depicted in the present Newarian scroll painting in his traditionally documented form of a five-year-old boy. It stands barefoot in the center of the painting against a floral background of green blossoms on a double-sided lotus. Its round, childlike face is adorned with two white almond-shaped eyes, with eyelashes indicated in fine lines. The nose, mouth, chin and eyebrows are represented with very simple contour lines. The young god stretches its right hand with open palm downwards for the wish-granting gesture (Skvaradamudrā), holding a pink lotus flower in its left hand. Buṅga-dya or Rāto Matsyendranāth is clad in the traditional Newārian dress (Skt. daurā), with white and red striped fabric decorated with floral motifs. Around the waist is a blue and gold sash with depictions of the Hindu deities Brāhmī, Gaṇeśa, Māheśvarī and Vaiṣṇavī. The head, surrounded by a blue halo, is adorned with a crown depicted in great detail, seven leaves above and a diamond sceptre (Skt. vajra) above the forehead. The body is decorated with ornate newārian jewellery: earrings, necklaces, bangles, anklets and rings on the fingers. Around the neck and from the shoulders down to the level of the hands hang a garland of flowers and a long snake. The young god is surrounded by a burning aureole, containing Buddha Amithāba above his head and a total of ten Hindu deities on the sides. These are clockwise from the lower left: ?, Viṣṇu, ?, Candra, Śiva, Agni, Sūrya, Vāyu, Varuṇa and Gaṅgā. In addition, kneeling beside Buṅga-dya or Rāto Matsyendranāth's right shoulder is god Braḥma and to his left a bearded founder figure with topknot. Also kneeling at the feet of the young god are Sudhanakumāra, on the right, and the red Hayagrīva with his typical horse’s head in his hair on the left. In each of the two upper corners of the picture hovers a celestial being (Skt. vidyādhara) with long angel’s wings and a large red hat, offering pink flowers in their hands. The special characteristic of this scroll painting is due to the fact that thangkas featuring the red Padmapāṇi Lokeśvara or red Avalokiteśvara in the form of a bodhisattva can be found only in a very small number in Western museums, such as the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. The present piece is characterised by a far greater rarity: an illustration showing Buṅga-dya or Rāto Matsyendranāth with the traditional Newārian appearance of his real statue from the valley of Kathmandu. This is so far unique and only found here in this 18th century paubhā.