Seated Amitabha with Attendants (c. 1100s): Art, History and Details

Seated Amitabha with Attendants (c. 1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The red Buddha of the West, Amitabha, seated in meditation on his throne, is flanked by bodhisattvas. Above are two rows of monks who transmit his teachings, and along the bottom is a row of six adepts, skilled practitioners of magic and the recitation of mantras to reach enlightenment quickly. In front of his throne are the three flaming jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, his teaching (dharma), and the spiritual community (sangha). Its unfinished state reveals the fluid and accomplished ink drawing delineating all the forms. This painting is one of the earliest surviving thangkas—devotional Buddhist paintings on cloth. It is from the region ruled by the Guge kings of western Tibet from the 900s to 1600s, now partially within the national borders of India.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Amitabha with Attendants
• Date: c. 1100s
• Culture: India, Western Himalayas, Lahul and Spiti, Tabo Monastery
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and ink on sized cotton
• Dimensions: Image: 78.2 x 62.9 cm (30 13/16 x 24 3/4 in.); Overall: 100 x 66.7 cm (39 3/8 x 26 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Tibetan Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2000.68

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” October 6, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Jules Speelman: 8 at 80. Hong Kong: Bonhams, 2025.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.