I just came across the website of Siberian Roerich Society, , where I found the following about the King of Shambhala tanka, read with automatic translation (Google Chrome browser) – please read upto the end:
The King of Shambhala Tanka
“In the exposition of the fireplace hall of the Novosibirsk Museum of N.K. Roerich can be seen the tanka “King of Shambhala” from the collection of the Roerich family. Let’s share the information that we managed to collect about this exhibit.
At the end of 1923, the Roerichs left America and arrived in India. They chose the Principality of Sikkim as a place for a long stop, renting a house near the city of Darjeeling. (…)
The entire Roerich family lived in this house for more than a year. They got acquainted with local sights, preparations were underway for the Central Asian expedition. The photographs of 1924 depicted N.K. Roerich with his sons Yuri and Svyatoslav in a room where the walls are hung with tankas, among which is the “King of Shambhala” tanka.
In the letters to N.K. Roerich to American collaborators dated August 20 and 27, 1924, we read: “Finally, an artist from Tibet has come to us and is now painting Shambhala, [beginning] with the King of the World in the center. Just think what we will bring to you! This cult is greatly revered in Tashi Lumpo (Tashi Lama Monastery). The expedition from Everest praised our collection of Tibetan paintings very much.” “And on the first floor [we] are painting the painting “King of Shambhala”….
When this unique exhibit arrived at our museum, we turned to Yulia Igorevna Elikhina (leading researcher at the Oriental Department, curator of the Hermitage’s Tibetan, Mongolian and Khotanese collections) to help us attribute the tanka. Here is her answer: “The second king of Shambhala, Manjushrikirti, is depicted in the center. He sits in the royal pose of rajalalitasana, with his right hand in the gesture of bestowing goodness (varada mudra), next to him is a lotus stem, on the flower of which there are attributes – a sword and a book (attributes of the bodhisattva of wisdom Manjushri, whose incarnation he is). In his left hand he holds a chakra, a wheel of teaching and a symbol of royal power. His parents are shown next to him in the form of bodhisattvas, since the kings of Shambhala receive teachings from their parents. The father’s right hand is in the gesture of fearlessness (abhaya-mudra), the left hand is in the gesture of teaching (vitarka).
Above are Buddha Shakyamuni teaching, with a white body, then Amitabha, with a red body, and Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, with a yellow body. Shambhala is surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Below is shown the war of the last king of Shambhala, after which the era of universal prosperity will come.
Yulia Igorevna also drew our attention to the fact that in the picture N.K. Roerich’s “Banner of the Future” from the collection of the State Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum depicts exactly the “King of Shambhala” tanka. As you know, this painting is part of the Maitreya series, which the artist created in 1925-1926 and presented to the Soviet government when the expedition visited Moscow.
Regarding the name of this painting – “The Banner of the Future” – we will quote the words of Yu.N. Roerich from his book “Tibetan Painting”: “The most characteristic work of Tibetan painting is the so-called tanka (than-ka), a word usually translated as a banner” 6 . The painting also has a second name – “The Song of Rigden-Jepo”.(name of Sanat Kumara)
And one more picture of N.K. Roerich’s “Order of Rigden-Japo”, created in 1926-1927, brings us back to the image on the tank – the image of Rigden-Japo almost exactly repeats the appearance of the King of Shambhala.
In the book Shining Shambala, Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich gives a conversation with one very respected lama: “… Rigden-Jepo, tireless, always awake for the benefit of mankind. His eyes never close. (…) Distance does not exist for him; he can help the deserving in the twinkling of an eye. Its bright light can destroy any darkness. (…)
A great era is coming. The Ruler of the World is ready for battle. Many signs are happening. Cosmic Fire again approaches the Earth. The planets herald a new era. But many catastrophes will occur before the new era of prosperity comes. Again humanity will be tested to determine if its spirit has developed enough. Underground fire is now seeking to connect with the fire element of Akash; if all good forces do not unite their power, the greatest cataclysms are inevitable.”
