# Bodhisattva Manjushri

- Date: early 1700s
- Medium: ink and slight color on cotton
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Overall: 57.6 x 42.4 cm (22 11/16 x 16 11/16 in.)
- Culture: Tibet, 18th century
- Credit line: Bequest of Lillian M. Kern
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.305)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.305/1997.305_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This painting depicts a red standing Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, shown with his hands in the gesture of teaching. At left, over his shoulder, a flaming sword emerges from a lotus flower, referencing the severing of ignorance. At right, a horizontal manuscript containing the wisdom text sits atop a second lotus flower. He is shown surrounded by a mandorla as a miraculous apparition in a dramatic landscape. Above, the figure on the left can be identified by his pointed red hat as a lineage master of the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism. The figure on the right is a layman, as indicated by his nonmonastic robes and long hair. He probably depicts the celebrated Sakya teacher Sonam Tsemo (1142–1182). At the bottom left, White Tara is shown holding a lotus between her thumb and forefinger—the gesture of teaching. Her right hand performs the mudra, or gesture, of supreme generosity, showing that she is giving the gift of teachings, which will bear beautiful results. At the bottom right, the protector Vaishravana is pictured in his wealth deity form, holding a mongoose spitting jewels in his left hand and an individual jewel in his right hand. The altar beneath Manjushri’s feet…