Khara Khoto: Guru

CHINA, Inner Mongolia, Alxa; Western Xia period

This Tibetan-style thangka is mounted on a scroll. It depicts a bearded guru sitting in full lotus position on a lotus throne. He wears a red inner robe covered with an orange robe. The left hand in held in front of the stomach, and the right hand forms a mudra. The white nimbus appears to radiate light. Scrolling vines are painted in the aureole. Within the red mandorla, there is an archway decorated with images of golden geese and goats standing on their hind legs.
A male and a female donor with their palms joined flank the lotus throne. The female donor has a high topknot and wears red clothes decorated with golden rosettes, fashionable during the Western Xia period (1032–1227). The bearded male donor wears a golden crown and red clothes tied at the waist with a white sash with black trim. The rectangular border of the painting is decorated with colorful lotus petals, a feature of several of the paintings discovered in Khara Khoto.