The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Verses) is one of the most basic texts of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. As commissioning a copy of this text and donating it to a monastery was considered to be an especially meritorious act, Nepalese and Tibetan monks and pilgrims brought numerous copies of this sacred text back with them to their own monasteries where they in turn inspired local artists.
This manuscript has forty-eight known extant folios with illustrations on a single side, apart from one folio with illustrations on both sides and one folio with no illustrations. Three folios are in LACMA’s collection:
M.72.1.24a, Folio 42 verso, Center panel: Green (Shyama) Tara, End panels: decorative borders.
M.72.1.24b, Folio 178 recto, Center panel: Khagarbha in the form of the yellow Ratnasambhava, Left end panel: Bodhisattva Khadagapani (?), Right end panel: Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
M.72.1.24c, Folio 198 recto, Center panel: Prajnantaka, South direction in the Circle of Protection of the Pindikramokta Akshobhya Mandala, End panels: Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara or Lokeshvara.
Identifications from Allinger (2008) and Pal (1993).
Additional folios from this widely dispersed manuscript are in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (68.8.114.1-.6), Asia Society Museum, New York (1979.53.1-4), Art Institute of Chicago (1995.241a-c), and thirty-two folios in a private collection.