The Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara surrounded by other Buddhist deities. Distemper painting.

Kwan Yin, Buddhist goddess of healing and maternity. Gouache painting.

1 painting : distemper on cloth ; cloth 117.3 x 67.5 cm

Lettering on verso in Tibetan and Sanskrit in Devanagari script.

Wellcome Collection 584868i

Provenance currently unknown. Accession registered in the Wellcome collection on 5 May 1946 as "Tibetan temple picture. Kwan Yim the Buddhist goddess of healing, maternity and mercy, seated on the sacred lotus throne. Painted on fabric with brocade borders of the three holy colours, blue, yellow and red. [Obtained from] no particulars."

Typed text on paper attached to the back of the textile states: "Description by E.F.B. London 10th December 1907. A very rare Tibetan temple picture painted on fabric and mounted in the orthodox manner with brocaded botrders of teh three holy colours - blue, yellow and red. Period: the XVI the century. Subject: Kawn Yin, the Buddist goddess of healing, maternity and mercy. She is surrounded by various designs of a symbolic character and six figures of minor deities. She is represented as seated on the sacred lotus throne. Remarks: A rare and remarkable representation. These hangings came over soon after the British expedition to Tibet. They used not to arrive before and have ceased since. The painting is remarkable in detail and execution. The double joy and expectation character is shown on the lower panel brocaded in gold on a red ground."

The thangka is not listed in the Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and catalogue of thankas, banners and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, by Marianne Winder, published 1989.