Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne

The central figure, Situ Panchen, is shown in profile, wearing red monastic robes and a distinctive red hat, holding a long strip of text. He sits on a gilded, ornate throne behind a low table holding ritual offerings. Above him in the sky are celestial figures: White Tara in a moon disc, a dark blue wrathful Mahakala surrounded by flames, and Amitabha Buddha. To the right, four monks in similar robes sit in a landscape characterized by rocky outcroppings and swirling clouds. In the foreground, below the table, a secondary wrathful deity—likely a protective guardian—is depicted dancing amidst fire.

Situ Panchen was a pivotal 18th-century figure in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, renowned for his work in art, medicine, and the preservation of the Kangyur and Tengyur canonical texts. This image represents the tradition of the 'lama portrait' thangka, used in guru yoga practices to visualize the master as an embodiment of the lineage of transmission.