The Bla ma mchod pa tshogs zhing of the dGe lugs pa Tradition: Introductory Analysis to the Iconography of the Oldest Images of the “Field of the Accumulation of Merits”

This article focuses on a specific iconography of the dGe lugs pa school. Thisbiconography is known by the name of tshogs zhing (a spiritual field for the accumulation of merits), here analyzed in its 18th century form. The images described here are an essential tool for the religious practice prescribed by the dgGe lugs pa’s bla ma mchod pa tantric literature. As an esoteric literature, the bla ma mchod pa is based on an “essential instruction” (man ngag) which gathers teachings on the main tantras of the so called niruttara classes. This paper will discuss the oldest iconography of the bla ma mchod pa tshogs zhing, directly related to the root text of the first Paṇ chen Bla ma Blo bzang Chos kyi rgyal mtshan (1567–1662). Among the many images of tshogs zhing I have analyzed – almost identical in the representation of this specific subject – I present here a xylograph and a thang ka. The xylograph, realized in the style of the 18th century’s woodblocks of sNar thang, is an uncatalogued item of the Tucci Tibetan Collection (IsIAO Library, Rome). The thang ka is property of a Tibetan private citizen living now in Bodhgaya, in the Indian state of Bihar