Need help identifying deity

[justsit]

Rescued this old thangka at an estate auction. Can anyone identify the deity? It is yab yum, hard to see. Sorry for the poor photos, item is very faded and creased.


deity5 by Justsit31, on Flickr


deity2 by Justsit31, on Flickr

[dakini_boi]

Could it be Hayagriva? What is he holding?

[justsit]

Right hand is holding a dorje, only top half is visible. Left hand is empty, palm facing viewer, fingers pointing down.

[gnegirl]

Could it be Hayagriva? What is he holding?

No, Hayagriva would have a horse's head coming out of his crown.

[justsit]

(bump)

[Malcolm]

I think it is a Chinese Forgery. The deity seems to be a version of Guru Dragpo.

[justsit]

OK, thanks.

[Dhondrub]

looks like guru dragpo

[Dexing]

I would say almost certainly Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi who's name means Vajra Hand and is always depicted in this posture, and wearing the tiger skin lower garment.

[Dhondrub]

I would say almost certainly Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi who's name means Vajra Hand and is always depicted in this posture, and wearing the tiger skin lower garment.

yes- but he is blue, while guru dragpo is seen in same stance with same mudras( sometimes with scorpio in the left) and same garments, but he is red!

[Inge]

looks like guru dragpo

From what I have been told, Guru Drakpo has a nine-headed scorpion in his left hand.

[Malcolm]

looks like guru dragpo

From what I have been told, Guru Drakpo has a nine-headed scorpion in his left hand.

In these kinds of PRC fakes, they never get any of the details correct.

[pemachophel]

A long, long time ago, I managed my Teachers' Tibetan antique store in Greenwich Village for a number of years. During that time, I learned a lot about Tibetan art and antiques. Many people brought Tibetan art in to our shop to try to sell or to have appraised, and I sometimes consulted for the Tibetan wing at the Natural History Museum. This thangka does not look PRC-made to me. It looks decidedly Nepalese in terms of its geo-political provenance (not the ethnicity of its painter). My guess is that someone bought it back in the 70s, originally in Kathmandu, which would make sense for something showing up in a recent estate sale. The crudeness of the drawing and the quality of the paints are very reminiscent of what was coming out of Nepal during the heyday of the hippie era. It's possible that the thangka was painted in Dolpo or Lo Mantang. Frankly, I can't see the details of the iconography well enough to decide whether it is simply a bogus tourist knock-off or whether its from a very poor area in the southern Himalayas. Sometimes the old thangkas from the monasteries and temples in these areas show up on the market when those monasteries or temples commission new thangkas to spruce thing up. Just some observations based on past experience.

[Malcolm]

This thangka does not look PRC-made to me.

I saw tons of thangkas of similar type when I was in Tibet in 2009 in tourist "Tibetan" shops run by Chinese merchants.