A type of religious cloth scroll historically painted by Newar artists from the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal between the fifth and nineteenth centuries, a paubha or patta depicts Tantric Buddhist, and sometimes Hindu, deities in an intricate, symmetrical composition, often in a mandala format. Rendered in subdued but luminous colours, surviving paubhas constitute the earliest specimens of cloth painting from Nepal. 

Historical background

The Newar term ‘paubha’ may be derived from the Sanskrit pratibha or prabha, both referring to light, luminosity, or divine manifestation, among a range of other meanings; the Sanskrit ‘patta’ generally means ‘painted cloth’. Paubha painting was developed primarily in the three major urban centres of the Kathmandu Valley — Patan, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu — by painters from the indigenous Newar community, with cultural influences both from India in the south and Tibet to the north. It is believed to have originated under the rule of Nepal’s Licchavi dynasty (fifth to eighth century CE), though no paubha specimens from this period have survived and its exact origins and early development are unclear. 

The oldest extant paubha has been dated roughly to the twelfth century; most date to the Malla period (thirteenth to seventeenth century) and appear sophisticated in form and technique. By this time, the Valley was an important point of exchange for Indic, Tibetan, and Newar religious practitioners, scholars and artists; the Newar people had assimilated Indic Mahayana Buddhism and the Tantric tradition of Vajrayana, as well as Vaishnavism and Shaivism — known in the Valley from the early centuries CE — into Newar Buddhism and Hinduism. These varied cultural influences are reflected in the myriad divinities that feature in paubha iconography. The range of Tantric imagery seen in paubhas also helps shed light on similar cloth paintings that Tantric Hindus and Buddhists in India are known to have made at the time — of which, however, no specimens survive.

The most discernible Indic influence on the region’s religious art came from the Pala rulers (c. 750–1161 CE) of eastern India. The Palas patronised Vajrayana Buddhist institutions that were important sites of pilgrimage and study, especially for Tibetan Buddhists. After the dynasty’s collapse and the weakening of Buddhism in India in the twelfth century, the Kathmandu Valley grew in importance as a Buddhist centre; political links between the Valley and Tibet had been strong since at least the seventh century CE, and it now attracted more Tibetan patronage. Tibetan monasteries frequently commissioned Newar artisans, and continued to be important patrons until the nineteenth century; paubhas made for Tibetan patrons — distinct from those made for Newar use — likely also influenced the development of Tibetan thangka painting. With the rule of the Malla dynasty who favoured Hinduism, from the thirteenth century on Newar Buddhists travelled to Tibet for pilgrimage and study, including paubha painters who may have worked there for long periods of time. 

Following the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816), the kingdom of Nepal under the Shah dynasty closed its borders for a time; the Kathmandu Valley lost its importance in the trade routes of the Himalayan region and paubha painters suffered an abrupt loss of patronage and funding. These challenges continue to the present day; most contemporary paubhas are made for the tourist market, though a small percentage are still made for religious patrons. 

Purpose

Paubhas historically served various purposes, sometimes stated in their inscriptions: as visual focal points for meditation; as icons for specific rituals or other auspicious occasions; to mark the observance of Newar life-cycle rites; to be given as offerings to gain religious merit; to honour the dead; or to commemorate a monument or temple’s restoration. Accordingly, their making too adhered to scriptural and ritual norms. They typically featured the cult or lineage deity (istadevata) of the patron, who was said to gain spiritual merit through the commission. Paubhas were displayed on the walls of temples and monasteries alongside sculptural icons, or in a private room of the patron’s home; to be periodically replaced by newer ones. 

Painters and patronage

From the thirteenth to the early nineteenth century, paubha painters in the Kathmandu Valley and Tibet worked in largely unchanging conditions of support and training. Newar painters received training through some form of a guild system, though it is unclear whether they formed well-established academies. Many may have worked for several patrons at a time; these patrons could have been businessmen or merchants, nobility, or clergy members. Only one paubha commissioned by royalty is known. Historical evidence from the Licchavi period onward suggests that artisans — including painters, wood-carvers, and metalsmiths, all known in Newar as puna and in Sanskrit as chitrakar — ranked low in the caste hierarchy of the valley, and that most, if not all, were Buddhist. Notable historical paubha artists include Arniko (c. 1245–1306; also known as Anige), who took on multiple commissions for Tibetan monasteries and the Yuan court in China, and Jivarama (c. fifteenth century), who likely worked in Tibet and whose sketchbooks are the oldest surviving sketchbooks of any artist from Nepal. 

Iconography and composition

A typical paubha composition comprises a central figure surrounded by related deities or guardian spirits, and rich ornamentation filling the background — usually a distinctive intricate vegetal scroll pattern. A mandala format is used often, but not always. A few unusual fifteenth century specimens feature narrative panels. Most extant paubhas are Buddhist in content, despite Hinduism’s growing dominance in the Valley in the Malla period — owing, according to some scholars, to a greater preference for painted icons among Buddhists. The earliest extant Hindu paubha may be a Navadurga mandala from the fourteenth century — although it is unclear whether the imagery is Hindu or Buddhist — or a Vishnu mandala from 1420; a majority of Hindu paubhas depict Vaishnava imagery with only the rare Shaiva specimen. Paubhas sometimes depict both Buddhist and Hindu deities together, rendered in the same style.

The paintings depict a wide range of spiritual beings, in their various forms, and symbols from the iconography of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantric Shaivism and Shaktism, and Vaishnavism. As in many examples of Tantric art, gods and goddesses are often shown in positions of sexual union, meant to symbolise the union of cosmic principles conceived as masculine and feminine. The earliest known paubha (1100 CE), housed in a private collection, depicts the Tantric Buddhist deities Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi in union. Bodhisattvas also appear as central or peripheral figures in paubhas: Avalokiteshvara is at the centre of a paubha dated to 1300 CE, and his consort Green Tara in another dated to the same year. The Five Transcendental Buddhas or Tathagatas, with their consort goddesses are also frequently seen; two paubhas made for Tibetan patrons in the early thirteenth century — likely part of a set of five — feature Ratnasambhava and Amitabha. Symbols such as the seven auspicious jewels ubiquitous in Buddhist paintings, and the navagraha and nakshatra — symbolic representations of the nine planets and twenty-eight constellations — are seen, as well as motifs of temples, thrones, shrines or stupas, sometimes suggestive of specific rites and decorated with the vegetal pattern of the background. Guardian deities often flank the corners of the mandalas, who may be chimeric creatures such as makaras or folk goddesses such as the Pancharaksha goddesses popular in Nepal. 

The iconography is based on prescriptions from a variety of texts, including Vajrayana literature, the Chitralakshana, a Sanskrit treatise on painting now only extant in Tibetan translation, and the Shilpashastra corpus. These specify how natural elements such as earth, sky and water should be shown; the composition, posture and gestures or mudras of deities; the correct use of colour; as well as ingredients for pigment-making. Possibly as a result of these strict guidelines, the style and content of paubha painting remained broadly uniform over several centuries. The decoration of clothing and landscapes reflects the artists’ more individual stylistic choices. The themes, narrative elements, figural forms and motifs in paubhas — and in related Newar painting traditions such as bilampau (narrative painting) — often drew from material collected in thyasaphu, the folded sketchbooks passed down through generations of Newar artists.  

Colophon

Many historical paubhas bear an inscription in the border, which, in those exported to Tibet, is located on the reverse. The inscriptions provide information such as the date of the painting’s consecration, whether the painting was new or a replacement of an older one, the patrons’ names, and sometimes also the occasion for which the painting was commissioned. The painter’s name is rarely included. One exceptional inscription mentions the name of the painter — Jayateja Puna — recording that he completed the painting in ten days, likely an extraordinary achievement. The earliest paubha bearing an inscription with a date is a Vasudhara mandala from 1367.

Along with the inscription, paubhas made for Newar use after the late fourteenth century also feature a consecration scene at the bottom of the painting, showing the patron and his family attending a fire ritual (homa) administered by a priest and his attendants — a feature absent in those made for Tibetan patrons. While the central iconography of the paubha remained largely unchanging over time, this section reflects historical changes in some paubhas; the women’s clothing, for example, follows styles popular in Indian courtly painting from the seventeenth century on.

Style

Paubhas from between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries show a largely conservative style, with few indicators of external influences. Despite the distinct cultural milieus of Patan, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, there is no clear stylistic variation in paubhas made in each city. This may suggest that paubha artists moved between cities frequently, or that the ateliers of each city had established common standards and evolved in tandem. 

The figures are sharply outlined and highly stylised, rendered in graceful and dynamic stances. The colour palette is rich, with blue and red predominating, but less bright than in Tibetan thangkas. The colouring is usually flat with no shading, meant to evoke the deities’ self-luminous nature and aid the paubhas’ use as meditation images. Scholars have observed that the curved noses, elongated eyes and eyelashes, and style of jewellery and other ornamentation, seen particularly in paubhas made for Tibetan use, bear strong resemblance to Pala manuscript painting and sculpture, many specimens of which have been found in Tibet. They are also thought to have possibly been derived from the style of the earlier Buddhist murals at Ajanta. 

The seventeenth century saw some notable changes in the style of paubhas. The paintings’ colour palette became brighter and more varied, and the thrones of the deities became more complex and richly ornamented, evolving into multi-tiered stupas. The deities themselves were also more heavily ornamented, with lavish crowns and jewellery. Landscape forms, previously quite abstracted if present — such as mountains in the form of multicoloured cubes with flame-shaped tips — became more distinct and naturalistic after the seventeenth century, with some motifs borrowed from Mughal, Rajput, and Tibetan painting. 

Materials and process

The process of creating a paubha is elaborately ritualised. The preparation of the canvas — varying from coarse- to fine-weave cotton — takes up to a week, involving stretching and priming or sizing it with animal glue, kaolin clay and sometimes other materials; and finally burnishing it with a conch shell or stone. On an auspicious day, a Newar high priest (gurju) performs a consecrating ceremony with the patron and the artist, including hasta puja (worship of the hands) to prepare the artist, who will create the divine image using the Tantric meditative practice of visualisation. The priest inscribes a syllable of a mantra related to the chosen deity onto the canvas, after which it is ready to be painted. A grid is usually used as a guide, though accomplished artists are known to have sometimes sketched freehand. As with many South Asian religious traditions, the eyes are considered among the most significant features of an icon, and are painted at the end, symbolically sacralising the painted figure. The finished painting is enclosed in silk or cotton cloth panels. 

Historically paubha painters, like other Nepalese painters, used mineral and organic pigments including lampblack, kaolin clay for white, lapis lazuli, azurite or indigo for blues, malachite for green, lac for red, cinnabar for red, yellow or orange, and gold and silver dust to add brilliance. These were dissolved in water and animal glue to create a distemper paint; the water solubility of these pigments made the paintings especially susceptible to damage and difficult to preserve. 

Contemporary status

The high cost and time involved in producing paubhas using traditional materials and processes poses a threat to the form’s sustainability. No official certification process for paubha painters exists; however, BFA students at Kathmandu University study the form in the mandatory Traditional Art Practices course. The prominent Newar artist Lok Chitrakar has established Simrik Atelier, a training centre to instruct young painters in paubha painting using traditional techniques and materials. Other contemporary Newar artists such as Uday Singh Shreshtha and Samudra Man Singh Shrestha have adapted the historical form into a popular contemporary style and format for the commercial art market.  

Historical paubhas are preserved at the Museum of Nepali Art, Kathmandu and the Bhaktapur Art Museum. During the month of Gunla Dharma (around June or July), various Buddhist monasteries in Nepal display old paubhas for public view. Several of the oldest known paubhas are currently housed in foreign institutions, including LACMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum, and Philadelphia Museum of Art.