Vajrapani Chitta Mandala (Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Tantra)
Tibet (Ü-Tsang Province)
15th century
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor on cotton
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 91.4 × 61 cm (36 × 24 in.)
- Culture
- Tibet
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Otto Doering III Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This mandala centers on Vajrapani and depicts his palace and entourage according to descriptions in the "Tantra Eliminating All Bad Rebirths" (Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Tantra). He appears here surrounded by four other Buddhas, all of whom appear with one face and two arms, peaceful, and white in color. The colored background indicates the specific identities of the surrounding Buddhas: blue Akshobhya, yellow Ratnasambhava, red Amitabha, and green Amoghasiddhi. In the intermediate directions are four goddesses who represent offerings: incense, flowers, light, and scent. Encircling all of them is the five-colored band that marks the wall of the mandala palace, and at the T-shaped gates there are female Gate Guardians. The row along the top of the thangka depicts the lineage of teaching for the Tantra Eliminating Bad Rebirths, starting at the top left with Vairochana.
The thangka bears an inscription with verses worshipping the Buddha and requesting long life for one's Buddhist teacher. It is painted with strong reds and blues in the Balri style popularized at Ngor Monastery in the 15th-16th c. This style's resemblance to Newar styles is not coincidence; the Balri style emerged…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
