After the Empire: The Bumpache Paintings and the Art of the Tibetan “Dark Age”

The Tibetan “Dark Age,” following the collapse of the Tibetan Empire in the mid-ninth century, has traditionally been viewed as a period of cultural and religious decline. This paper reframes that narrative by examining recently excavated double-sided portable paintings from the Gathang Bumpache stūpa in Central Tibet, dating to before the eleventh century. Detailed analysis of the style and iconography of the Bumpache paintings identifies the female figure as an offering goddess, closely related to figures found in Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara paintings from Dunhuang, and the monk figures as members of the Sixteen Arhats, whose depiction follows Chinese artistic traditions. These findings show that Buddhist artistic production in post-imperial Tibet not only continued but actively reinterpreted visual models from beyond the plateau, integrating them into a distinctive and previously unattested double-sided format. Rather than a cultural and religious void, the so-called Tibetan “Dark Age” emerges as a vital period in which Buddhist art was localized and innovated upon following the fall of the Tibetan Empire.