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Medicine Buddha Palace (Copy of first painting from the set of the Tibetan Medical Paintings from Mentsikhang Lhasa)
OriginRebgong county, Qinghai Province, China
Date2012-2013
Dimensions74 3/4 × 58 1/4 × 2 in.
MediumPigments on cloth
Classification(s)
Credit LineRubin Museum of Art
Object numberSC2013.6
Project Himalayan Arthttps://projecthimalayanart.rubinmuseum.org/exhibition/living-practices/secular-aims/medicine-buddha-palace-copy-of-first-painting-from-the-set-of-the-tibetan-medical-paintings-from-mentsikhang-lhasa/
DescriptionThis painting of the Medicine Buddha in his palace illustrates the first chapter of the Four Medical Tantras (Gyu shi), which many medical students and doctors recite every morning in homage to this buddha and his medical tradition. The palace, presented as a traditional Buddhist mandala diagram, is surrounded by four mountains. Each mountain offers the perfect environment for specific medicinal plants to grow and harbors various types of minerals, precious stones, and springs with restorative waters, each associated with particular healing qualities and used in treatment. At the center of the palace the Medicine Buddha, in the form of the teacher Rigpa Yeshe, is seen expounding the science of healing to four groups of disciples, among them his student Yilekye. This painting is a rendition of the first painting of an important set of seventy nine medical thangkas created in Lhasa, Tibet, in the late seventeenth century.Not on view
18th century
18th century
16th century (ca. 1500)
18th century
mid-18th century
First half of the 15th century
19th century
