This painted banner (paubha) depicts the enlightened goddess Ushnishavijaya seated in the center of a chaitya (as stupas are called in Nepal), surrounded by repeated rows of smaller chaityas. She is white and has a peaceful countenance, with eight arms and three faces, each of which has three eyes. Surrounding her are red and green bodhisattvas, a pair of flying vidyadharas above, and the eight guardians of the directions on animal mounts. In smaller chaityas in the corners there are different forms of the goddess Tara. Below, on the upper row along the bottom are the Five Protector Goddesses (Pancharaksha). Under this is an inscription in Newari detailing the occasion of the ritual this paubha commemorates. At the very bottom are scenes of the consecration and other rituals. On the left, the vajracharya (priest) performs a fire sacrifice (homa) while the donors offer prayers. On the right, members of the sponsoring group offer prayers and make the small clay chaityas for which the ritual is named.<\/p>\n
The paubha both depicts and forms a portion of the Laksha Chaitya, or Hundred Thousand Chaitya Rite, a ritual for the benefit and welfare of the household or group who sponsors it. Undertaken in the summer months, the Laksha Chaitya is an important communal practice in Newar Buddhism, the form of Vajrayana Buddhism that originates in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. During the ritual, members of the sponsoring group spend one month making many small clay chaityas, which are then blessed and deposited in a large chaitya or sacred river. The inscription on this paubha states that it was created for a Laksha Chaitya Ritual performed in the Autumn of 1513, in order to benefit the patron, his wives, children, and grandchildren. It names the officiating ritual master, and establishes that the ritual\u2013of which the image is one part\u2013was completed.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"58.2 \u00d7 57.2 cm (23 3\/16 \u00d7 22 1\/2 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":57,"height":58,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Opaque watercolor with gold on cotton","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Pratapaditya Pal, with contributions by Stephen Little, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection <\/em> (The Art Institute of Chicago in association with Thames and Hudson, 1997), 216, cat. 198, 151 (ill.).\n\nVictoria Blyth-Hill, \u201cA History of Thanka Conservation in Western Collections\u201d, Western Association of Art Conservators Newsletter <\/em> 15, no. 2 (Los Angeles, 1993): 18.\n\nAlsop, Ian. \"The Conservations of Tibetan Thangkas,\" in asianart.com an online magazine, March 5, 1998.","exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection <\/em>, August 2- October 26, 1997, cat. 198.","provenance_text":"James W. Alsdorf (1913\u20131990) and Marilynn B. Alsdorf (1925\u20132019), Winnetka and Chicago, IL; by descent to Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago, 1990 [on long-term loan at the Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 6, 1983; promised as a gift to the Art Institute of Chicago, Mar. 11, 2002]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 19, 2014.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":8,"fiscal_year":2015,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":0,"color":{"h":39,"l":47,"s":38,"percentage":9.113102037900657e-5,"population":57},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of Asia","department_id":"PC-7","artist_id":null,"artist_title":null,"alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[],"artist_titles":[],"category_ids":["PC-7"],"category_titles":["Arts of Asia"],"term_titles":["Himalayan","thangka","watercolor","painting","asian art"],"style_id":"TM-5376","style_title":"Himalayan","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-5376"],"style_titles":["Himalayan"],"classification_id":"TM-16428","classification_title":"thangka","alt_classification_ids":["TM-39","TM-9","TM-26"],"classification_ids":["TM-16428","TM-39","TM-9","TM-26"],"classification_titles":["thangka","watercolor","painting","asian art"],"subject_id":null,"alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":[],"subject_titles":[],"material_id":null,"alt_material_ids":[],"material_ids":[],"material_titles":[],"technique_id":null,"alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":[],"technique_titles":[],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"364b5f36-e213-f288-f5b2-c24122e81c39","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["2014.1040"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Ushnishavijaya Within a Chaitya, Commemorating the Laksha Chaitya Vrata (Thousand Chaitya Ritual), with Dated Inscription"],"weight":371,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-09-02T15:40:46-05:00","updated_at":"2026-09-02T18:42:01-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:53:04-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. 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