# Star Mandala

- Date: 1615-1868
- Medium: Color and gold on silk
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: H x W (overall): 119.4 x 71.2 cm (47 x 28 1/16 in)
- Culture: Buddhists
- Credit line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.389a-c/)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/119a5c0d3c1052f2950f9e3cdb891ebe.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Known variously as the Star Mandala or the Big Dipper Mandala, this painting is an Edo period (1615-1868) version of an iconographic concept that was imported to Japan from China in the ninth century. It was employed in Esoteric Buddhist rituals for the purpose of warding off epidemics, averting natural disasters, and prolonging life.