Himalayan Miracles Under Amber Domes: Prague's Tibetan Art Collection

Mgr. Lenka Gyaltso is curator of the Asian Art Collection at the National Gallery in Prague. The Tibetan treasures gathered there were described as "Himalayan miracles under amber domes" by the Tibetologists who formerly resided in Prague. As for this Chakrasamvara lineage, it originates from Ümapa Sönam Senggé (དབུ་མ་པ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་སེང་གེ་; ?–1399), the teacher of Tsongkhapa. Because of his continuous dreams of Manjushri Bodhisattva, his yidam, he was called the "Dreaming Master" (བླ་མ་རྨི་ལམ་པ་).

In 1796, a social movement intended to cultivate artistic taste was launched by a group of Bohemian nobles and middle-class intellectuals. Gelsang Thubten Jigme Gyatso (སྐལ་བཟང་ཐུབ་བསྟན་འཇིགས་མེད་རྒྱ་མཚོ་; 1743–1811) was a well-known figure in the later Gelug tradition of Chakrasamvara practice, having many Mongolian students from Qinghai and the interior regions of Northern Asia, and also maintaining close ties with the religious circles of the Qing court.

By founding the "Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts," these gentlemen, in a sense, shaped the subsequent unique cultural landscape and atmosphere of Prague (within the Bohemian context). They invited Prague's citizens to take up "reading and viewing" by establishing galleries and libraries that housed their once-private collections of artworks and manuscripts. Furthermore, they convened discussion forums to solicit opinions on art and culture from all social strata, which gradually evolved into political discourse.

For scholars focused on the Himalayas, Prague represents an illuminating site for Tibetan research and a center for scholarly exchange. Around Charles University and the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences—which was established in 1922 and contains a Tibetan library—numerous influential academic works have arisen. Meanwhile, the National Gallery in Prague, currently showcased to the world as an architectural complex, originated from this same movement.

In November 1951, the National Gallery created a specialized "Department of Oriental Art" (which later became the Asian Art Collection). That department's collection, numbering more than 13,000 objects, was situated in the Kinský Palace, a space devoted exclusively to presenting Asian art. Czech Tibetologists, whose specialization covers the broader Himalayan and North Asian regions, are held in high esteem at Western academic institutions owing to their profound skill in textual studies.

Housed in the National Art Museum of Bragg Country is "God of War/Soul of Nine Brothers," a Mongolian work dating to the late 18th century. Originally a guardian deity of indigenous religion, this figure was later adopted as a protector of Buddhism and entered Mongolian folk belief through the Gelug tradition. Within this collection, items tied to Japanese art form the largest group, while over four hundred additional pieces relate to the Himalayas and North Asia.

Even though the art museum’s total collection is not particularly outstanding in Europe, scholars view its Tibet-related holdings as carrying clearly identifiable research labels, such as the Gelugpa belief in Pan-Asia and the late artistic masterpieces in eastern Tibet. The majority of the Tibetan works in the National Gallery in Prague originated from Vojtěch Chytil (1896-1936), a Czech painter and diplomat, and from Josef Martínek (1888-1976), an official with the British Customs Service in Shanghai.

During the 1930s, both had displayed their collections in Prague, including Chytil's 1936 exhibition titled "Contemporary Art in Tibet, Mongolia, and China". Over the period from the Third Dalai Lama (1543-1588), who propagated Buddhism and trained followers in Mongolia, to the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682), who formally set up the Ganden Phodrang regime (1642-1959), the Gelug tradition—acting as a transregional religious system and philosophical framework—left an enduring mark on both the central Qing court and North Asia's heartlands.

Several distinct regional artistic schools have emerged in the eastern areas of Tibet as a result of multiple art movements and stylistic syntheses, including the innovative Kagyu Karchak painting school. The aforementioned golden-backed works—"Gesang Tudeng Jinmei Jiacuo" and "God of War - The Nine Brothers of Fate"—are artistic creations that reflect this historical phenomenon.

At the National Gallery in Prague, two series of works, both originating from Tibet's eastern regions but differing in theme, are held: one is "Jataka Stories of the Buddha," and the other is "Transmission of the Diamond Seat: The Eighty-Four Mahasiddhas," which totals four pieces and resembles the collection at Sera Monastery.

The latter is a Qinzhe school work whose style combines influences from both the new and old Mentang schools with those of the early Kagyu Karchak painting school. The former, in contrast, belongs to the new Mentang painting school of the Chamdo region, shaped by the Kagyu Karchak painting school—particularly the layout devised by the 8th Situ Rinpoche—and still warrants further investigation.

In the National Gallery in Prague, an 18th-century set of paintings is titled "Scenes from the Life of the Buddha," while another set, dating to the late 17th century, bears the title "Vajrasana Lineage: The Eighty-Four Mahasiddhas." Within the latter are specific details: a charnel ground rendered in the Chöying style with particular iconographic arrangements, and landscapes displaying features of the New Menri and Karma Gadri painting styles. The article itself is a translation from Sorang Wangqing's blog.