Great Scroll Depicting the Hundred Wondrous Deeds

One of the most remarkable treasures on show is the famous 'Tsurphu Scroll', an early Ming dynasty silk-backed painting with Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Uighur and Arabic inscriptions (ibid., pl. 26.1-4; see also Tibetan Art Studies, Beijing, 1992, vol. 25/3, pp. 41-43). Titled in the museum Delivering the Taizu of Ming to Heaven, it depicts the miracles performed by the Fifth Karmapa Dezhin Shekpa during his 22-day visit to the Yongle emperor in Nanjing in 1407, when according to the inscription the Tibetan Grand Lama was made chief of all the ban-de [Buddhist monks] in the empire'. This outstanding document of early Sino-Tibetan relations was discoverd at Tsurphu monastery in 1949 by Hugh Richardson, who was able to copy and translate its Tibetan inscription (Hugh Richardson, 'The Karmapa Sect: A Historical Note', in High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture, London, 1998, pp. 359-63 and 369-76).
The scroll must have been presented to the Karmapa by the Yongle emperor, who had also offered him the famous Black Hat, which he had seen in a vision during a religious ceremony. Yongle's invitation to the Fifth Karmapa and his intensive patronage of 'Lamaist' art at the Ming court were based on more than just political interests. His genuine commitment to Tibetan Buddhism continued the Tibeto-Chinese connection of his Mongolian Yuan predecessors, and saw a second great revival in the 18th century under the Qianlong emperor.