INCISED QIANLONG WUXU CYCLICAL MARK CORRESPONDING TO 1778 AND OF THE PERIOD

Rolpe Dorje (1717-1786) was the Third Changkya Hutuktu of the Gelugpa sect, and the principal Tibetan Buddhist teacher in the Qianlong Court. A learned scholar fluent in Chinese, Mongolian, Manchu and Tibetan, he oversaw the translation of the Kangyur into Manchu and Tibetan. Compare a gilt-bronze figure of Rolpe Dorje seated on a square cushion with hands held in the same mudra but missing the kalasa in the Capital Museum, Beijing (fig. 1). Refer also to a painted thangka of Rolpe Dorje in the Palace Museum, Beijing, commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor in 1787 where the Lama is shown holding the same mudra with a white kalasa in his left palm.