The Fifth Dalai Lama with Episodes from His Life

This exquisite painting tells the life story of Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617–1682). Renowned for unifying Tibet with Mongolian military backing in 1642. The Great Fifth, as he is known, was integral in the creation of a theocratic government led by the Dalai Lamas, which lasted until 1959.

The story begins at the top left with his miraculous descent from the Potala pureland of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara into his mother’s womb at Chonggye Castle in southern U Province, Tibet, highlighted by rainbow light. The biographical episodes continue counterclockwise, each vignette identified with a golden inscription, and include construction of Potala Palace (bottom left), his visit to the Qing Emperor Shunzhi (reigned 1644–1661) in Beijing in 1653 (center right), and end with his death at top right. This is labeled as the twelfth painting on the left, and thus the twenty-third painting in a very large set of lineage master depictions.