Wangdu Nyingpo, Tuchen (c.1763-c.1806) was a Patriarch

Patriarch

Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...

 of the Khon

Khon

Khon is a genre of dance drama from Thailand. It is traditionally performed solely in the royal court, by men in masks accompanied by narrators and a traditional piphat ensemble. A variation of this genre with female performers is called khon phu ying...

 Family, the 29th Sakya

Sakya

The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...

 Tridzin, and the second Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...

 of this age.

He was a renowned Terton (finder of Revealed Treasure), and was surrounded by tutelary deities and the figures of previous lives.

His sons were Padma Dudul Wangchug and Kunga Rinchen who founded the present day palaces, the Drolma and Puntsog respectively as these are depicted at the top of the illustration shown above.

At the top center is the primordial Buddha Vajradhara

Vajradhara

Vajradhara is the ultimate primordial Buddha, or Adi Buddha, according to the Gelug and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism.In the evolution of Indian Buddhism, Vajradhara gradually displaced Samantabhadra, who remains the...

, blue in colour, with the Indian Mahasiddha Virupa at the left and Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, first of the five Sakya patriarchs, at the right.

At the bottom left of the Wangdu Nyingpo portrait is an unidentified Sakya lama

Lama

Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...

wearing the traditional white lower garment of the Khon family consisting of a pandita hat with lappets and a kila tucked into the waist sash. On the bottom right is a monk -believed to be Nyingpo's chief monk who is wearing his monastic robes.

Following Wangdu Nyingpo's death around 1806 his small palaces were divided between his sons of the Khon family lineage.

External links

• Wangdu Nyingpo at Himilayan art.org