The delicately rendered painting of Amitayus, with Tara and Ushnisavjya on either side, is a relatively recent work. The date of approximately 1950 can be deduced from the extraordinarily lifelike portraits of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, at the age of 10-15, in the upper left, and his principal tutor, Ling Rimpoche, in the upper right. It was originally thought that this painting might have been painted by Amdo Champa, the extraordinarily gifted artist who painted the famous portrait scenes that adorn the walls of the Norbu Lingka, the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lama, and which can still be seen there today. Amdo Champa is still in Lhasa and at the age of 83 lives with his latest wife and numerous progeny (the yougest is 6!) at the foot of the Potala Palace. When shown a picture of this painting, he agreed that it was indeed in the style that he pioneered, but said he believed it to be the work of one of his contemporaries.

Detail: Entire painting with brocade surround

Detail: Detail of HH Dalai Lama portrait