Araniko was born in 1245 in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, when it was ruled by King Abhaya Malla (1216–55). While Nepalese history does not have any record of Arniko and everything that is known of him comes from Chinese ac… 展开

The event that brought Arniko to Tibet, and eventually to the Yuan court in Shangdu (today's Beijing), was Kublai Khan's decree of 1260 CE to Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, the fifth patriarch of Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism, to bui… 展开

Arniko had six sons, two of whom, Asengge (阿僧哥) and Ashula (阿述腊) followed his career path as artists working for the Yuan dynasty. He lived in China until his death in March 1306 at the age of sixty-two. Of his death Cheng Juf… 展开

Arniko's imperial portraits represent the watershed between Song, Yuan and later imperial portraits. The aim of later portraits were no longer to suggest virtuous conduct, but physiognomy. This approach was followed not onl… 展开