Item: Indian Teacher - Shantideva

Shantideva surrounded by the Six Ornaments and Two Excellent Ones of the Southern Continent. At the top center is Shakyamuni Buddha with the bodhisattva Manjushri seated to his right and the bodhisattva Maitreya to the left. The artist name is Thangla Tsewang (1902-1989) of East Tibet. (Six Ornaments Outline Page).

At the center of the composition is Shantideva depicted as floating above a teaching seat at Nalanda Monastery. This follows the most famous narrative episode in the life story of Shantideva when he first taught the Bodhicharyavatara to the congregation of monks and scholars. When he began to teach the ninth chapter, a section on wisdom and the Buddhist view of reality, then Shantideva is said to have risen up into the sky. After that he left Nalanda for the quiet and solitude of South India.

At the top center is Shakyamuni Buddha. Descending on the left side are Manjushri, Nagarjuna and Aryadeva.

Descending on the right side are Maitreya, Asanga, Vasubandu and Chardragomi. The other figures in the lower composition are Dignaga, Dharmakirti, Gunaprabha and Shakyaprabha. There are two additional figures but the image is not clear enough to be able to read the name inscriptions.

Jeff Watt 1-2008