Translating the Tibetan Buddhist “Thangka”
(An Adapted MA thesis)
Laura Wein
Introduction
In an age when the “Secret Vehicle” is exhibited in public spaces it is essential
to remember that thangka are unlike paintings that arise out of other religious
traditions. They are ritual objects. A ‘thangka’ is a Tibetan scroll painting marked
by its distinct material composition as well as its religious imagery. Thangka
paintings almost always depict a Vajrayana Buddhist subject, be that a deity,
the dwelling place of that deity, venerable yogis, or monastic lineage holders.
The most observable quality differentiating thangka paintings from religious
paintings that arise out of other traditions is the rigidly structured construction
and painting process itself, which I had the opportunity to observe irst-hand
at Sechen Monastery’s Tsering Art School in Kathmandu (see Plate I) during
the summer of 2014.
According to the school’s principal, Kelsang Namgyal, a minimum of six
years experience in acquiring technical skills is required of a traditional
thangka artist.1 The process begins with stretching and preparation of the canvas,
typically linen, to which gesso (a plaster-like mixture of glue and chalk) is
applied. Then methodically, iconometrics are noted, and outlines are drawn
on the canvas. After precisely executing the proportional requirements and
a balanced compositional design, colors are added. The faces and eyes are always
painted last unless the artist plans to include any gild-work. When the painting is
completed the brocade framing, wooden bars, and protective veil are attached.
“How do I know if it is a good thangka or not?” Kelsang Namgyal stated
rhetorically, “It depends on the artist…You can go outside to learn thangka
painting. There are so many schools. Here we have so many rules to follow…
and what we are teaching here is how to be a good person, not just thangka
painting…the painter has to have good motivation.” Evidently, the material
and visual prerequisites do not sufice. If a painting is done according to
tradition and with “good motivation” for the beneit of others, consecration
should and typically does immediately follow production. Today’s large
population of commercial artists often sidestep these religious requirements.
For the purposes of this paper, however, I am concerned only with those
thangka paintings that are consecrated and thus indicate a history of traditional
Vajrayana Buddhist ritual engagement.
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Tracing out this history of ritual engagement is the empirical foundation
of my argument about the functional aspects of thangka and the concordant
theory of interpreting thangka I have devised. Visual evidence of consecration
by means of shared Tibetan Buddhist conventions is indicative of a thangka’s
status as an eficacious ritual object. In his technical treatise on thangka
painting, David Jackson describes four religious activities enabled by the
medium: (1) the accumulation of merit, prosperity, or the overcoming of an
obstacle, (2) assistance for the deceased in the process of transmigration, (3)
devotional practices or single pointed meditation, and (4) elaborate Tantric
visualizations.2 In each of these four religious contexts, the thangka takes on
the role of sku rten or “body support.” This is the category Tibetan Buddhists
use to distinguish thangka from “art” (Tib. sgyu rtsal). The Tibetan category
sku rten is one that designates transformative power and therein justiies
classiication of Tibetan thangka paintings as a “ritual objects.” As the
twentieth century Italian scholar of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, Guiseppe
Tucci says, “tankas, though they represent religious subjects and never touch
profane themes, have a practical purpose; they are not free creations of the
artist’s fancy, but on the contrary a necessary element in liturgy, and they are
bound, as we shall see, by exact and inviolable rules.”3
In this article I argue that traditional Tibetan thangka paintings are unique
ritual objects that are functional in addition to being symbolic and that latent
insights into these functional aspects of Tibetan “art” can be gained by
utilizing the Tibetan category sku rten to access them (refer to Plate II). My
method is based on the conviction, simply stated by Religion scholar Robert
Orsi, that “religion cannot be understood apart from its place in the everyday
lives, preoccupations, and commonsense orientations of men and women.”4
Therefore, in addition to using Tibetan Buddhist categories to explain
thangka paintings, I argue that it is useful to imagine how a Tibetan Buddhist
might have incorporated such an image into his or her environment or religious
practice. This exercise requires some historical speculation since we do not
know the exact ownership histories of the thangka I will examine, but drawing
on broader ritual studies of thangka practices will allow us to assemble some
reasonable conjectures about how these particular paintings may have been used.
One of the foremost signiicant uses of thangka for transformative
purposes by Tibetan Buddhists is as a basis of visualization in Deity Yoga.
Therein, it takes on the role of sku rten (body support). When practicing Deity
Yoga Tibetan Buddhists engage thangka, in the vivifying words of observer
Guiseppe Tucci, along with, “secret instructions which will produce his
paligenesis.”5 The instructions Tucci is referring to are sgrub thabs (Tib.) or
sadhana (Skt.), which are essentially guides authored by a grub thob (Skt.
11 TibeT Journal
siddha or highly accomplished practitioner) to visualizing a deity in its other
worldly abode as a means to practicing Deity Yoga. Such guides “[supply]
a psychological and symbolic apparatus by means of which the practitioner
(sadhaka) successfully identiies himself with the ultimate reality personiied
in the Buddha.”6
Thangka also supply psychological and symbolic apparatuses. Through
exploring the visual content and qualities of a thangka that Tibetan Buddhists
internalize during the practice of Deity Yoga as well as the practice itself, one
can begin to discern how that thangka’s visual qualities “work” and why. This
is the most fundamental piece of my method for interpreting thangka.
The Vajrayana notion of the liberation through vision, which begets the
functional qualities of the thangka, is a systematized soteriology that demands
diligent practice and prescribes engagement with ritual objects. In this article I
demonstrate the insight that these modes of engagement yield to how and why
such numinous forms are translated into two-dimensional ones and the ways in
which they operate instrumentally within the Tibetan Buddhist belief system.
Through an analytical approach like this one it becomes possible to discursively
approximate a “religious” rather than merely visual encounter with esoteric
“art” like this in reasonably ordinary language. As David Morgan points out,
sight is founded in one’s corporeal foundation, while “vision” is grounded
in the power dynamics surrounding religious symbolism and iconography.
Merely examining the origins and aesthetics of Tibetan Buddhist symbols and
iconography is insuficient to understanding the dynamic underpinnings of the
Tibetan Buddhist forms of “vision.”
Acknowledging problems Catherine Bell raises about a tendency among
scholars of religion to employ ritual as a reiied category and the structure it imposes
on theoretical discourse, I will use the category ritual in the manner she suggests,
which is, more disclosing of the strategies by which ritualized activities do what
they do.7 Rather than theoretical formulations of ritual, I will offer descriptive ones
that begin with the historical foundations and beliefs that precede them. Bell also
suggests that using the Euro-American category ritual tend[s] to override and
undermine the signiicance of indigenous distinctions among ways of acting.8 This
is why I have taken the time to directly discuss the thangka and rituals I describe
with Tibetan Buddhists such as Kelsang Namgyal (Principal of the Tsering Art
School), Jampa Khedup (former student of Geshe Lundup Sopa), and Geshe Tenzin
Sherab (abbot of Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin). I include
many references to these invaluable discussions in the paper that follows, as they
have aided me in understanding such indigenous distinctions.
My search for a deeper understanding of these Tibetan scroll paintings is
motivated, irst and foremost, by the ubiquitous nature of thangka paintings,
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which are, according to Weber’s Images of Enlightenment, “not meant
as decorative wall-hangings to be admired once in a while or looked at
occasionally for leeting inspiration.”9 Thus, I ultimately hope to elucidate the
qualities of thangka paintings that preclude perfunctory visual encounters and
to convey an understanding of them that aligns with the indigenous Tibetan
classiication of sku rten or “body support” under which they fall.
In this paper, I will demonstrate the possibility of discerning the dynamic
connections that make these body supports eficacious tools—those that lie
between the visual content of a thangka painting, Tibetan Buddhists beliefs that
give meaning to that visual content, and the religious practices that utilize it.
These are the types of relationships that Robert Orsi says constitute “religion”
itself. I discern these connections by employing Tibetan categories and what
I know about ritual forms of engagement directly from the aforementioned
Tibetan Buddhists teachers and practitioners. I have chosen three particular
eighteenth and nineteenth century thangka paintings from the University of
Wisconsin—Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art (about which there was no
prior research at all) as my means to doing so. I will begin by discussing
visual content of each of these paintings by way of Tibetan Buddhist histories,
liturgy, and iconographic conventions in order to establish the context for
Tibetan Buddhists’ encounters and ritualized forms of engagement with the
images. This is all to establish a foundation with which I then attempt, in the
second half of my paper, to synthesize what it is thangka do as form of sku rten
(body support) in those Tibetan Buddhist ritual contexts. I will also attempt
to explain how and why they do so by drawing upon the qualities of the three
thangka and associated Tibetan Buddhist views I expound in the irst half of
my paper. By exploring various religious activities connected to these thangka
that treat them as sku rten within both lower and higher levels of Tantra, I hope
to demonstrate the Tibetan Buddhist vision that unites all levels of religious
engagement with thangka and, perhaps, the possibility of a deeper theoretical
understanding of them. The convergence of materiality and transcendence
contained within the category ‘sku rten’ helps us see the functional qualities
of thangka more clearly—how paintings it in to a systematized soteriology
that relies on practice. As a physical form of spiritual support, or sku rten, the
Tibetan Buddhist thangka affords sensory access in material form to religious
experiences that transcend the physical.
“Thangka of the Eight Medicine Buddhas”: A Means for Merit and Prosperity
For the purposes of this paper I will use the “Thangka of the Eight Medicine
Buddhas” (Plate III and IV) to explore the vision of a lay practitioner. Exploring
Tibetan Buddhist lay people’s engagement with and ritual usage of thangka
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is important for many reasons—the foremost being the mere fact that the
majority of Tibetan Buddhist lay practitioners hang thangka in their homes.
Furthermore, the majority of Tibetan Buddhist lay practitioners have personal
shrines in their homes that most often include thangka. “Even the humble tent
of the nomad is not without an altar.”10 There, a Tibetan Buddhist can practice
a wide variety of merit-making rituals, largely facilitated by the enlightened
forms or pieces of Tibetan Buddhist “art” contained in those personal shrines.
The central igure, a buddha bearing an appearance common to all
Buddhist traditions, stands out from its ten-igure retinue primarily because
of its size. Multicolored and gold-embellished robes distinguish the central
buddha further. Traces of the delicate gold streams that once emanated from
the bicolored disc atop the igure’s lotus throne are still evident. The buddha
sits atop a lotus throne which has the majority of its gild-work still intact at its
base, surrounded on east, north, and west sides by lush lotus lowers, curled
leaves, and suspended buds. An ornamented red table of objects including
a bum pa (“vase”), three rin chen (“jewels”), chos kyi ’khor lo (“dharma
wheel”) and a small stack of dpe cha (religious texts), sits directly in front of
the lotus throne.
The table’s base is partially obstructed by a buddha igure atop a loating
lotus (which more closely resembles a cloud in the thangka’s current state)
with the same facial features and proportions as the central igure, making the
same gestures, only lacking the hand implements (bowl and plant). In fact,
there are two igures that resemble the central igure in these precise ways.
Save the hand gestures, or phyag rgya (Skt. mudra), the same can be said for
the seven other buddhas. Each of these buddhas sits in the same posture, wears
the same style robe, has the same proportions, the same facial expression, and
most notably, the same protruding bump atop his head (Skt. ushnisha). They
differ in their hand gestures or phyag rgya (Skt. mudra).
Pointed yellow hats and garments of many more layers distinguish the
three igures on the top of the canvas from the seven buddhas surrounding the
central igure. Two distinct columns draw the eye from where these igures
sit at the top of the canvas straight down to its base. They are rocks made
to form long narrow columns, angled to intersect. This short wall of rocks
lines a stream of water between two oddly angular pieces of green land—an
arrangement that alone gives shape to a mystical kind of landscape.
Traces of patterned gild-work atop the table of offerings lead the eye to
discover gold remnants throughout nearly every part of the canvas except
for those areas restricted to the landscape. It looks as if the ten surrounding
igures, which loat on lotus leaves, were once equally as embellished as
the central buddha igure. Such a contrast between the bicolored landscape
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and hovering igures would certainly have an even more pronounced effect.
Naturally, the correspondingly soft colors of the painting in its current state do
not match the original ones. However, the canvas still holds some memory of
the vibrant primary colors that originally dominated the encircled igures and
the saturated pastel-like blues and greens with which the artist irst rendered
the landscape.
These details are those that any viewer of the Chazen’s Thangka of the
Eight Medicine Buddhas has the capacity to see. Moreover, in this globalized
world, anyone who has access to a Tibetan thangka, whether in the physical
or digital form, likely has some visual associations that at least enable them
to identify the central igure as a buddha through basic cultural osmosis
if nothing more. One level of understanding is revealed through a basic
recognition of the many pieces of iconography present in this thangka, as
they (like all Tibetan symbols) bear deep historical, philosophical, and ritual
signiicance. One cannot begin to understand the prescribed meaning of this
visual composition without familiarity with these profoundly established
symbols. Tibetan Buddhists identify Vajrayana deities through reading and
recognizing their hand-held implements, garb, and countenance. At the most
basic level, a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, lay person or ordained, has to
use their familiarity with iconographic conventions such as these to identify
the deity in order to engage with the image in the ritualized ways prescribed
by Tibetan Buddhist liturgy. Tibetan viewers of this painting understand
relexively that the buddha igure at the center of the painting is not the
historical igure Shakyamuni Buddha who was once granted the title by
virtue of his re-discovery of the dharma in this world-cycle (Skt. kalpa). This
buddha is similar in appearance, but holds a lapis blue bowl with medicinal
nectar and fruit in his left hand. His physical form as well as the crossed
position of his legs (Tib. rdo rje skyil krung, Skt. vajraasana) which secure
the soles of his feet in an up-turned position atop his knees, is just like that of
Shakyamuni’s Tibetan Buddhist iconography. However, this buddha’s sright
hand sits in front of his knee in the blessings-granting gesture (Tib. mchog
sbyin gyi phyag rgya, Skt. varadamudra) holding the stem of a myrobalan
plant.11
This image of a Medicine Buddha is often referred to by its epithet, “the
Healing Master of Lapis Lazuli Radiance.”12 While Landlaw and Weber, for
instance, call this radiant coloring its “most distinctive” identifying feature, the
Medicine Buddha rendered in this thangka is golden, as are the surrounding
buddhas. The absence of his characteristic lapis blue color, while unusual,
does not preclude identiication. The Chazen image can be identiied as the
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Medicine Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Radiance (Tib. sman gyi bla bai dur ya
’od kyi rgyal po) as the central deity is the only one of the eight Medicine
Buddhas who holds these implements. These strongly held iconographic
associations were established early on in the sutra (Tib. mdo) tradition of
Bhaisajyaguru (Skt. for Medicine Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Radiance), thus
relayed in the words all Buddhists to be spoken from the historical Buddha
Shakyamuni himself. Establishing this connection, moreover, provides insight
into the visual content of the “Thangka of Eight Medicine Buddhas.”
According to Landlaw and Weber, the foremost characterization of the
Medicine Buddha is as a deity “whose practices confer long life, health,
and prosperity.”13 The present symbols, such as the myrobalan plant (Tib. a
ru ra), the mchog sbyin gyi phyag rgya (Skt. varadamudra), and so forth,
are recognizable ones whose so-called ‘meanings’ have been reiterated by
Buddhists of various vehicles and traditions for centuries. They are symbols
directly connected to the deity’s enlightened status and to twelve vows the
Medicine Buddha is believed to have taken as a bodhisattva which are detailed
in the Medicine Buddha Sutra such as the following: “May my name become
a mantra that heals all ailments. May the sound of my name and the image
of my nirmanakaya be a balm that eases all pain. May the sound of my name
or visualization of my image cure physical troubles and sickness. If this does
not come to pass, may I not reach enlightenment.”14 The myrobalan plant
this Medicine Buddha holds is one central to Indian Ayurvedic and Tibetan
Medicine and, therefore, acts as a conventional reference to his ultimate
healing power.15 Moreover, the Medicine Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Radiance’s
hand gesture (Tib. mchog sbyin gyi phyag rgya or Skt. varadamudra) is
known in English as the blessings-granting mudra. His posture and physical
attributes, just like that of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, convey his
status as a fully enlightened buddha and thus, his power to act in the way he
vows in the sutra.
Extant versions of the original sutra date to the fourth and seventh centuries,
evidencing the fact that the foundation for this imagery predates the advent of
Buddhism in Tibet and hence, the possibility of this being an interpretation
of the Medicine Buddha of wholly Tibetan origin. The Bhaisajyaguruvaiduryaprabharaja Sutra identiies each of these seven accompanying Medicine
Buddhas, tying the origins of their prescribed signiicance to earlier Mahayana
schools as well. By virtue of this history, this particular image is accessible
even to those uninitiated into Tantric Buddhism. In fact, few iconographic
elements distinguish this thangka’s imagery from that prescribed by earlier
Mahayana traditions. The “Thangka of Eight Medicine Buddhas” does,
however, include the most telling and distinctive iconographic element of
16 TibeT Journal
Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings—the three lineage holders seated, yet
similarly loating like deities at the top of the canvas. Such an element serves
a purpose similar to other forms of retinue igures I will elaborate on later,
which Guiseppe Tucci so aptly describes as “[expressions of] the irradiation
of truth and the spiritual link uniting those who have been initiated into the
same mystery.”16 It is this community of initiates that distinguishes Vajrayana
Buddhism from earlier Mahayana traditions, as well as these particular visual
elements found on thangka. Moreover, the spiritual link between historical
Tibetan Buddhist igures and otherworldly buddhas is crucial to understanding
thangka as sku rten.
This “Thangka of the Eight Medicine Buddhas” is unique among related
Mahayana and Vajrayana depictions of the divine irst and foremost by virtue
of its size and particular marks, which provide evidence of a very special mode
of consecration. Unusual for a consecrated thangka, the painting is a mere ten
inches tall and seven inches wide, and its silk and cotton constitution makes
it practically weightless. The average thangka is at least four times the size
of this one. The inscription on the back of the “Thangka of Eight Medicine
Buddhas” allow us to draw some educated guesses about the possible uses for
which this uniquely sized painting was intended (Plate II). On the backside of
this thangka, the following is written in cursive Tibetan script, which I have
converted here to Uchen:
ྱལ་ྣམས་བདེ་ཆེན་ློང་ུ་རོ་གཅིག་ྱང་། ྙིགས་མའི་འྲོ་ལ་ུགས་ྗེ་ྨད་ུང་བ། བཅོམ་ྡན་
བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་མཆེད་བྱད་པོ། འདིར་བུགས་ུ་ྱོར་ལ་སོགས་འྲོ་བ་ྣམས། གནས་
ྐབས་དམ་ཆོས་བུབ་པའི་ྱེན་ཚང་ཞིང་། རིང་མིན་ུང་འུག་ངེས་པ་ྔ་ྡན་པའི། ངེས་པ་དོན་
ྱི་བཅོམ་ྡན་ྨན་པའི་ྱལ། མངོན་ུ་འུར་པའི་དགའ་ྟོན་ྩལ་ུ་གསོལ། ཅེས་པ་འདི་ནི་དད་
བྩོན་ྣམ་དྱོད་ྡན་པ་ྗེ་བུན་མ་ློ་བཟང་ྲོལ་མ་ནས་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་མཆེད་བྱད་ྱི་ུ་
ཐང་གསར་ུ་བཞེངས་པའི་ྱབ་ཡིག་ྨོན་ཚིག་འདི་ྟ་ུ་ཞིག་དགོས་ཞེས་བུལ་བའི་ངོར་གོང་མ་
ཆེན་མོའ ི་ུང་གིས་ྭ་སེར་བྟན་པའི་གསལ་ྱེད་་་ཨ་ཆི་ུ་ནོ་མོན་ཧན་ུ་འབོད་པས་ྱར།
My translation goes as follows:
Although all victors are of one taste17 with the expanse of great bliss,
eight exalted, blissfully-departed companions arise out of marvelous
compassion for degenerate sentient beings18. May the patrons who are
present here as well as all sentient beings in this temporary situation
have the complete conditions of practicing the holy Dharma. I ask you
to bestow, before long, the joyful moment of manifestation; the state of
union endowed with the ive certainties19, which is the ultimate reality of
the exalted king of medicine.
As for this prayer, it was written behind the newly created thangka
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of the eight blissfully departed companions by the highest of the yellow
hat’s supreme luminary of teachings Achi Tunomonhan in response to the
faithful, devoted, and discerning Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma’s request.
This inscription suggests that the primary religious pursuit behind the
commissioning of this work was merit making. The inscription tells us this
by identifying a patron, Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma, and inscriber, Achi
Tunomonhan (tutor to Seventh Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso of the 18th century
as well as the 54th Ganden Tripa, spiritual leader of the Gelugpa sect). Thubten
Zopa Rinpoche, abbot of the Gelugpa Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu,
tells us that the act of commissioning such a work is an act of merit making
because it provides others “the opportunity to look at it and to purify the mind
and to plant seed of enlightenment.”20 Thus, “If you produce holy objects,
such as pictures or statues of buddha, it beneits very much not only you but
especially other sentient beings.”21 The “holy” status of this particular object
is conferred by the colophon that follows this short composition, in which the
writer identiies himself as “Achi Tunomonhan” (a title he was granted by
the Qianlong Emperor) and therein, details the circumstances of the thangka’s
production and consecration. When the contemporary Nyingma monk and
Tsering Art School principal, Kelsang Namgyal, read this inscription he noted
that it is unusual to consecrate a thangka with such a personalized inscription
and that they would not do so at the Tsering Art School. However, since it was a
great master who inscribed this thangka, it is suficient for consecration. Such
details provide evidence of an initial history of ritual engagement concordant
with doctrinal prescriptions (consecration and simultaneous inscription) and
subsequently provide evidence of the eficacy of Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma’s
merit making act of artistic patronage.
This inscription does not make reference to the Tibetan Buddhist practice
of merit making related to the commissioning of the production and
consecration of the thangka itself. The inscription does, however, describe
the supramundane goals that the master asks to “bestow” upon the patron.
That he does so by way of invoking the eight Medicine Buddhas is implied
by the material combination of the image and words. The author’s sentiment
indicates that it is that Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma’s patronage was in fact
aimed at more than this initial merit-making project. Perhaps the patron was
a khyim pa, or ‘householder’ in the common Buddhist sense, a layperson who
took refuge in the three jewels and abided by the ive precepts, which declare
abstention from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and alcohol
consumption. Many Tibetan Buddhist lay people orient their practice around
proximal goals such as happy rebirths and do not necessarily take on these
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precepts. Despite their lay status, those who deem themselves ‘khyim pa’ might
instead aim for the supramundane or ultimate goals of Vajrayana Buddhism: “the
complete conditions of practicing the holy dharma...[and] the joyful moment
of manifestation; the state of union endowed with the ive certainties”—“the
state of union” refers to the essence of enlightenment, which is most commonly
formulated in English translations of Tibetan Buddhist scriptures as “the
realization of both emptiness and bliss.” The ive certainties are the result, all
of which are embodied by the body of perfect rapture—eight representations of
which are pictured on the painted side of this thangka.
Based on this visual and iconographic insight as well as evidence of the
patron’s ostensible desire to achieve more lofty spiritual goals, I can then
engage the relevant Vajrayana ritual texts to make credible inferences with
regard to how a Tibetan Buddhist lay practioner such as Jetsunma Lobsang
Drolma might have employed a thangka like this one for transformative
purposes. The most common ritual related to the Medicine Buddha among
Tibetan Buddhist lay practitioners, sman blas gyi mdo chog (“Sutra Ritual of
the Medicine Buddha”), is a practical ceremony in which a Tibetan Buddhist
can engage with a thangka such as this one (which would likely be found in
a personal space) and requires this particular composition. The prayer evokes
and calls for the blessings of these eight Medicine Buddhas as each is addressed
individually by title in the text. This ritual, which comes in more than one form
and in various lengths composed by various Tibetan Buddhist teachers, is a
Vajrayana ritual of the bya rgyud (Skt. Kriya Tantra), or “Action Tantra” class.
This Sutra Ritual includes homage to the eight Medicine Buddhas depicted
in this thangka, which are all derived from the original Medicine Buddha
Sutra (as mentioned previously). As Thubten Zopa Rinpoche says, “Just as
the door to enter the Mahayana path is bodhicitta, the door to enter Tantra is
initiation.”22 So those who practice any class of Tantra typically need to have
received an initiation referred to as ‘empowerment’ or at the very least, an oral
transmission of some kind, but in the case of this particular Sutra Ritual, one is
required merely to have generated kun rdzobs byang chub kyi sems (‘relative
bodhicitta’). Relative bodhicitta is the altruistic motivation of bodhicitta in
absence of the cognition of stong pa nyid (Skt. sunyata) or emptiness. This
ritual is an example of that class of Action Tantra texts that does not require
special permission to picture the deities.
The ritual, as fully expounded in The Wish Fulilling Jewel, goes as
follows. First come the oral statements of refuge for recitation: “I seek refuge
in the eight brothers gone to bliss, the lord Medicine Buddhas with their hosts
of retinue deities”23 is a statement that is included among these and aligns the
intention behind the “Sutra Ritual” to the intention behind the commissioning
19 TibeT Journal
of this small, devotional thangka. A prayer for generating bodhicitta,
contemplating the Four Immeasurables (equanimity, love,compassion, joy),
“special bodhicitta,” puriication of the place of practice, and preparation of
the offerings is done in that sequence to prepare for the actual seven-limb
practice. What follows depends greatly on the invocation of the Medicine
Buddhas. According to the elaborations of the Dalai Lama on Tsongkhapa’s
action Tantra instructions24, when inviting the deity one should, “face in the
direction where the painted igure or the like is” and prostrate, then assume the
same position as the deity.25
Moreover, all of the ritual procedures should, according to the Dalai
Lama, be oriented towards the present visual forms.26 This includes verses of
prostration, beseeching, prayers to each of the eight Medicine Buddhas, which
include prostration, offerings, rejoicing, and refuge, a prayer to the dharma,
requesting beneits of the practice, mantra recitation, request for forgiveness,
a request to remain, auspicious verses, and inally dedication of merit.
In the case that Jetsunma wanted to invoke sman gyi bla tu rya’i ’od kyi
rgyal po (the Medicine Buddha, King of Lapis Lazuli Radiance) in a more
expedient fashion, she may not have performed such a lengthy ritual. It is
often the case, as Geshe Tenzin27 Sherab conirmed, that lay practitioners
receive oral transmissions through public teachings. Those enable them to
practice the most popular and expedient form of deity invocation, zlos pa
sngag or mantra (Skt.) recitation and this ritualized action may also be
oriented towards the devotional thangka hanging in or nearby her personal
shrine. It is also conceivable that Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma did not keep
the thangka for herself after commissioning the work. As former Gelugpa
monk, Jampa Khedup, suggested it is quite possible that this patron not only
had the “Thangka of the Eight Medicine Buddhas thangka inscribed by Achi
Tunomonhan, but gifted the thangka to the monastery in an effort to reap even
more merit. Regardless of her involvement or lack thereof with the thangka
after its production and consecration, each possible scenario involves some
form of merit-making activity, pointing directly to the transformational power
of the object.
“Thangka of Khadiravani Tara”: An Image Made for Mind
The Chazen Museum of Art’s “Thangka of Khadiravani Tara” (Plate V)
will assist me in exhibiting another facet of the Tibetan Buddhist thangka’s
transformational power. I will use this thangka to explore the vision of a
committed Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, practicing Deity Yoga in the pursuit
of higher spiritual goals. Exploring Tibetan Buddhist Deity Yoga, a ritualized
practice, which incorporates the thangka, is the most patent demonstration
20 TibeT Journal
of “taking result as path,” the most expedient and common description for
Vajrayana philosophy at large. Therein, the traits of Buddhahood depicted
in thangka are internalized, meditated upon, and utilized for transformative
purposes. It is during the practice of Deity Yoga that the aesthetic qualities we
see on the thangka take on a particularly instrumental role.
Here the central igure’s elongated white eyes pierce through the forestgreen complexion of her skin drawing the viewer’s eye straight in to this
thangka’s complex and colorful composition. Her hair sits atop her head,
adorned in lowers and a crown with the image of a red buddha. Her distended
earlobes carry gold, jeweled earrings. Her female igure, distinguished by her
very-circular breasts, is entirely dressed in colorful silks and jewels; She even
wears “rainbow-colored stockings”28 on her legs. Her left hand sits atop her
knee upon which the upturned tips of her thumb and irst ingers hold the stem
of a blue lotus lower. Between the thumb and ring inger of her left hand,
which sits in front her of breast, she holds an identical lotus lower. Her right
foot is drawn up and her left foot is slightly extended. Just below her left foot
sits a square-framed pool of water. There, a thick bed of green leaves protects
a full lotus upon which a gold mirror and two fruits are assembled.
To the right and left are the second largest igures in size; similarly adorned
female igures standing straight up, gesturing and gazing toward the space
between them with a palm extended in the same direction. The igure on the
right is blue, holds a leafy plant upon which balances a skull cup with gri gug
(curved knife) sitting on top. The igure on the left is yellow and holds a small
tree in her left hand. Bare-chested, white igures dance, play instruments, and
hold banners on either side of the yellow and blue haloed females. Trees line
the ground at the base of the palace. They sit behind the moon disc, which
supports the central igure’s back. The architecture reaches the top of the
canvas, where directly under the gilded roof, lies another seated red buddha.
Two triangular spaces made by the trees lining the palace open up to the sky,
in which two igures loat on lotus thrones surrounded by curling clouds. On
the left is a igure with three heads, one yellow, one white, one blue, six arms,
holding various implements, the irst two in mnyam bzhag phyag rgya (Skt.
dyanamudra) and mchog sbyin gyi phyag rgya (Skt. varadamudra). The igure
on the right is all white, siting cross-legged, holding a single lotus lower in
the right hand just as the green central goddess does, with the same boongranting gesture save the second lower.
Basic elements of the central igure, such her breasts, green color,
ornaments, lotus lowers, buddha crown, and posture immediately tell Tibetan
Buddhists that this igure is Rje btsun sgrol ma or “Jetsun Drolma”, “Venerable
Mother of Liberation.” This is the Tibetan translation of her original Sanskrit
21 TibeT Journal
name Tara, which according to Waddell is, “derived from the Sanskrit Tarak
for tarika = ‘Dilveress’ or ‘Savioress’.”29 The question as to whether her
origin lies in Early Indian Tantric Buddhism or Brahmanical Tantricism is a
contentious one, however, her Tantric Buddhist foundation can be traced to
the 7th century Taramulakalpa.30 Her Tibetan and Sanskrit names points to
her protective and pacifying powers, for which Tibetan Buddhists most often
supplicate her, as described in the root Tantra’s stanza (according to Susan
Landesman’s translation): “Blessed Noble Tara, who assumes the guise and
form of a woman, shall dispel robbers, loods, famines, and various injuries.
She shall pacify all dangers [resulting from] kings, lions, tigers, buffalo,
wolves, poison, robbers, humans, and non-humans. She shall also make all
sentient beings who are skillful in the ritual of reciting mantras fulill [a desire
for] various kinds.”31
Her green form connotes this swift liberating movement, representing
her association with the wind element, and signifying her Buddha family
within the Yoga Tantra class (the Action Family), whose primary igure is
Amoghasiddhi, for whom Jetsun Drolma also acts as consort. However,
it is ’Od dpag med (Skt. Amithabha), Buddha family leader and father of
Chenrezig (Wyl. spyan ras gzigs, Skt. Avalokitesvara), who sits in her crown
and atop her palace. He is the leader of Jetsun Drolma’s buddha family within
the Action and Performance Tantras. This connection is also derived from the
birth story relayed in Mani bka’ ’bum, “The Hundred Thousand commands of
the Mani” ostensibly32 written by King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century, in
which Jetsun Drolma emerges from the preexisting bodhisattva Chenrezig’s
tear.33
This legend was and continues to be reiterated by many Tibetan Buddhists,
including the famous Tibetan historian Taranatha in his treatise on the origins
of Tara and is widely believed. The iconographic detail that signiies this
connection between Tara and Chenrezig simultaneously denotes previously
mentioned attributes of the bodhisattva. In The Sacred Art of Tibet, the
reasoning behind this particular form of Jetsun Drolma’s crown of Amitabha
rather than that adorned by the father of her buddha family, Amoghasiddhi, is
the former’s association with “immortality, since the meditator is propitiating
her to remove obstacles to his life.”34
From the original Jetsun Drolma, however, twenty-one emanations emerge,
some peaceful, others wrathful, belonging to various Buddha families and
all representing aspects of Jetsun Drolma. One must, therefore, understand
the differences among them in order to identify the present form. Though
there are ive different systems of the twentyone Taras and the esteemed 9th
century Kashmiri scholar Suryagupta’s includes this Tara among the 21, his
22 TibeT Journal
description does not accord perfectly to this representation. Atisa’s system,
however, which does not identify this form of Tara as one of the 21, but rather
a twenty-second Tara”, accounts for this distinguishing feature, which is as
small as the additional lotus lower in her right hand. So unlike the other
twenty-one Taras, based on Atisa’s conception, this form of Tara, which is
known as ‘Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma’ (Wyl. seng ldeng nags kyi sgrol ma),
is not associated with one particular aspect of the primary deity. Rather,
she is Green Tara as she once appeared in a particular setting to a particular
practitioner, and thus, as she is presented in a particular sgrub thabs text (Skt.
sadhana) or “a means of accomplishing.”
Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma is the Tibetan name for Khadiravani Tara or
Green Tara in her role as “Khadiravani, Dweller in the Magical Khadira
forest.”35 According to Miranda Eberle Shaw, “A song of praise by Nagarjuna,
possibly the earliest known literary treatment of this manifestation, places Tara
in the midst of [this] earthly paradise: Holy Tara’s palace is the Khadira Forest,
A grove of glomerous igs, acacias, jujube trees…”36 This Nagarjuna37 is one
of the Eighty-four grub thabs chen po (Skt. mahasiddhas) and is credited with
authoring a number of sadhana such as that from which this image originated.
Mallar Ghosh identiies the sadhana devoted to this form of Green Tara as
Sadhana No. 89 of the Sadhanamala, a compilation of about 300 sadhana
authored by various mahasidhas of which the oldest extant manuscript is
dated to 1165 A.D.38 There are, of course, many variations of this sadhana in
this day and age, which have been developed through adaptations of length
and detail to it the needs of a diverse body of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners.
The Chazen Museum’s Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma thangka accords perfectly
to how sgrub thabs or sadhana commonly describe her: “mdzes thams cad kyi
phul du phyin kyang rin po che’i rgyan thams cad kyis yid du ’ong bar brjid
bzhin pa bcu drug lon pa’i lang tsho can,”39 with totally perfected beauty and
completely adorned by jewels, endowed with the resplendent beautiful youth
of a 16 year old. The Chazen’s thangka depicts her two attendants according
to the liturgical form, pictured on the lower left and right respectively: Odzer
Chenma (Skt. Marici) and Ral gcig ma (Skt. Ekajata). This thangka does,
however, diverge from the basic formula of Sendeng Nagkyi Drolma in that it
also depicts Drolma Kar or ‘White Tara’ (Skt. Sitatara) in the top right corner with
seven eyes and on the top right is Tsugtor Nampar Gyalma (Skt. Usnisavijaya),
the fourth of the twenty-one Taras, who along with White Tara and Amitabha
(Tib. ’Od dpag med) acts as a longevity deity.
As evidenced by this image of Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma’s origin in the
Tantric scriptural tradition of sgrub thabs, the primary role served by this
thangka’s imagery is as an aid in facilitating Deity Yoga (the very basic
23 TibeT Journal
instructions for which are provided in the sgrub thabs text itself). When I
asked Geshe Tenzin Sherab whether or not a lay practitioner would be
likely to identify this particular image of Green Tara as Sengdeng Nagkyi
Drolma, the irst step required to acquiring the proper sgrub thabs text, he
responded: I think it is dificult for one to know the difference [among the
Twenty-One Taras] usually those of us who have not become monks don’t
pay a lot of attention and then do not understand. Given the direct connections
between this thangka and sgrub thabs literature, with the additional evidence
of consecration, it is very likely that a Tibetan Buddhist once used this
very thangka for the purpose of for a practice of sgrub thabs. While it is
impossible to verify this historically based on the information available about
this painting, it has compositional and visual qualities that strongly suggest
this usage: consecration constituting its status as sku rten, standard imagery,
and accuracy. Practitioners who use thangka for support in sadhana practices
related to Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma rely on these aspects of the thangka as the
ritual texts prompt them to internalize and animate the imagery they see in the
painting in the mind’s eye. sGrub thabs practices related to Sengdeng Nagkyi
Drolma are likely to involve self-generation and such requires initiation by
means of ritual referred to as rjes gnang—“subsequent permission”, which
is not full empowerment, but permission to picture the deity that assumes
the practitioner has already received an empowerment of the higher tantric
classes. As stated previously, “the door to enter Tantra is initiation.”40 So those
who practice Deity Yoga involving self-generation into Sengdeng Nagkyi
Drolma as the tutelary deity, need to have gone through the rjes gnang. When
I showed Geshe Tenzin Sherab la, in relation to this thangka, what kind of
practice a Tibetan Buddhist should engage in following a Green Tara rje
gnang he said,
བདག་ྱེད་ྟོས་ནས་བདག་ྱེས་ཟེར་ུས་ཉི་མ་ྟག་པར་ྷ་དེ་ྒོམ་དགོས་ྱི་ཡོད་རེད་ྷ་དེ་ལ་
མཆོད་པ་ུལ་དགོས་ྱི་ཡོད་རེད་ཨ་ནི་དེ་དང་མཉམ་ུ་ྡོམ་པ་དེ་ཚོ་བུང་དགོས་ྱི་ཡོད་རེད། དེ་
ྭ་པ་དང་མི་ྱ་དེ་ཚོ་ལ་ྱེད་པར་ཡོད་མ་རེད།
To paraphrase his answer in English: One should practice what is called
self-generation of that deity [Green Tara] every day and make offerings to that
deity. Then, with that those praises [the 21 praises of Tara] should be spoken.
Further, there is no difference in that for monks and lay people.
For the purpose of my aim to explore each of the four tantric levels of
engagement with thangka as sku rten I will, however, imagine that the holder
of this particular thangka is a Gelugpa monk who has been initiated to the
24 TibeT Journal
Highest Yoga Tantra (Tib. bla na med pa’i rgyud). A Sengdeng Nagkyi
Drolma sgrub thabs text that involves self-generation is often classiied as bla
na med pa’i rgyud (Skt. Anuttarayoga Tantra).
Though there are many versions of sgrub thabs practices that engage with
Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma of lower Tantric classes as well as various lengths
and styles within each, all share the same formula and objective. In addition to
a variety of sgrub thabs texts on the same bodhisattva, there are also secondary
texts such as commentaries and simpliied explanations of Sengdeng Nagkyi
Drolma’s sgrub thabs. In addition to the sku rten provided in the form of the
thangka, a practitioner may employ any of these texts to aid their practice. As
plainly stated by the Dalai Lama in his preface to the founder of the Gelugpa
school, Tsongkhapa’s treatise on Deity Yoga, one should engage the thangka
“as a basis of imagination by placing it in front of you” at the outset of such
a practice.41
Advanced practitioners typically memorize the text of their chosen sgrub
thabs (Skt. sadhana) in order to enhance that practice, removing the visual
distraction of reading, which precludes complete engagement with the act of
Deity Yoga itself.
Dechen Nyingpo (an esteemed Gelugpa monk from the late 19th century),
for example, has designed a sgrub thabs of the Highest Yoga Tantra class
related to Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma that treats her as Green Tara from whom
the Twenty-One Tara emerge called “Instructions on How to Implement the
Two Stages of Khadiravani Tara Yoga, the Heart Mind Mantra Garland.”42
These “two stages” refer to that of generation and completion, the two stages
of Deity Yoga (Tib. lha’ rnal ’byor). A text such as Dechen Nyingpo’s provides
details and explanations of the most full forms of the Sendeng Nagkyi Drolma
sadhana. According to Alex Berzin, these fuller forms of sgrub thabs (Skt.
sadhana) texts (upon which Dechen Nyingpo’s text elaborates even further)
explain the inner and outer practices involved in the practice, which constitutes
a scripturally sound practice of lha’i rnal ’byor or Deity Yoga. Outer practices
such as those included in the basic formula known as the “Seven Limbs”
precede this visualization and may call for engagement with the thangka as
sku rten in the same sense as the Medicine Buddha Sutra Ritual of the Action
Tantra class—acting as dwelling place for the Medicine Buddhas’ boundless
bodies towards which propitiary acts, as prescribed by Tibetan Buddhist texts,
should be directed.
Common to all sgrub thabs texts, long and short, is the section that calls
for use of the thangka as sku rten—the “opera of visualization” (in the
words of Berzin) during which sgrub thabs texts animate the details one sees
on the Thangka of Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma. As Janet Gyatso says, “The
25 TibeT Journal
sadhana proper commences when the practitioner imagines him or herself to
be seated in meditation and surrounded by all beings in the universe.”43 This
occurs at the outset of the “generation stage” during which the practitioner
uses the painted imagery as foundation to visually approximate the perfect
appearance of the deity (in this case Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma) in the mind’s
eye. It is assumed that the practitioner has had experience in the lower Tantras
and adequately familiarized him or herself with the painted image, which
is a an attempt to mimic the divine reality, relecting that which was once
realized and relayed by the spiritually victorious author of the sadhana. Frontgeneration or mdun skyeds begins with imagining Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma’s
seed syllable, “TAM” rising to the sky and inally sitting on a white lotus atop
a moon disc from which perfectly brilliant light shines forth and retracts. It is
that seed syllable that transforms into Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma, who should
be imagined just as pictured in the thangka. Therein the practitioner is mainly
concerned here with achieving clarity of appearance of a divine body, mantra
letters, and so forth…”44 This always precedes self-generation or mdag skyeds
if it is part of the sgrub thabs, which begins with absorption of the deity
in front into the conventional self (the body of the meditator) by entrance
through the crown of the head. Her seed syllable rests at the meditators heart
as he or she transforms into Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma in the mind’s eye. In the
body of Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma, the meditator then imagines performing
her enlightened activities. Tsongkhapa refers to this process as “entry of
the wisdom being.” In this process, “Imagination is used in order to replace
limited and stultiied mind and body with superior forms of these, whereby
a new sense of selfhood develops—compassionate, wise, and pure.”45 This
is the beginning of the completion stage wherein the meditator embodies the
“divine pride” of Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma and begins to manipulate the
energies, or rsta lung (“channels and winds”) within his or her own body so
that he or she can gain access to direct cognition of emptiness which gives
way to the experience of bliss.
While these are the stages of generation and completion found in rnal
’byor rgyud (Skt. Yoga Tantra) and bla na med pa’i rgyud (Skt. Anuttarayoga
Tantra), according to Tsongkhapa, the visualization practices of mdun skyeds
and mdag skyeds done during the generation stage are also incorporated into
Action and Performance Tantras. Rather than consisting in the stages of
generation and completion, Deity Yoga of the lower classes of Tantra consist
in “yoga with signs” and “yoga without signs.” They emphasize preliminary
practices characteristic of Action Tantra rituals such as consecrating the place
of practice, which involves the recitation of sngags (Skt. mantra), simultaneous
display of phyag mtshan (Skt. mudra), and prostration during which one should
26 TibeT Journal
“face in the direction where the painted igure or the like is.”46 As Jeffery
Hopkins says in his supplement to the translation of Tsongkhapa’s treatise,
“Whereas the generation of oneself as a deity is done from within meditation
on emptiness, the generation in the front is a matter of inviting a deity to come.
Therefore, the preliminaries of the four-branched repetition involve extensive
preparation for the visit of a deity, who is treated like a guest.” The Action and
Performance Tantra traditions emphasize internal practices of Deity Yoga as
well which are particularly concerned with “achieving clarity of appearance
of a divine body.”47 They do not simply “complete feats through the power of
deities that are found in paintings and so forth [that is, they imagine a deity
in front of themselves from whom they, as ordinary beings, receive feats].”48
Rather, Tibetan Buddhists visualize enlightened beings to invoke their true
substance and may go even further to envision themselves as the deity itself to
ultimately achieve the same substance. During self-generation one meditates
on the “sign deity” during which “one is reviewing in stages the face, arms,
and so forth, of a divine body and thus a series of minds is being generated.”49
Deity Yoga in the Action and Performance Tantras typically closes with the
recitation of sngag combined with very concentrated visualization of the deity,
in front or as oneself. It is not an analytical meditation, but a samadhi-like
(Skt.) meditation referred to as “bestowing liberation at the end of sound” or
“yoga without signs” because it is conjoined with meditation on the emptiness
of the sign deity the practitioner has in his or her mind’s eye. So in either
case, Action and Performance Tantra or the Highest Yoga Tantra, Tibetan
Buddhists who practice Deity Yoga truly engage with the imagery seen on the
Chazen’s “Thangka of Khadiravani Tara.”
“Thangka of Four-Armed Mahakala”: An Apparition for the Advanced
To demonstrate a third mode of engagement I will now use the “Thangka of
Four-Armed Mahakala”(Plate VII). This thangka will assist me in exploring
the vision of an ordained member of the Tibetan Buddhist dge ’dun (Skt.
sangha)—an advanced practitioner who has been fully initiated to the Highest
Yoga Tantra and takes on the responsibility of perpetuating the chos sku (Skt.
dharma). For it is those Tibetan Buddhist practitioners who engage with a
distinct genre of thangka that are typically kept in a dark restricted chamber
called the ‘mgon khang’, to which only monks have access.
In this thangka, horizontal layers of elongated clouds formed by ine
lines, ill the deep black space just above the central igure’s giant aureole
of dark red lames. In a distinct nimbus at the center are two standing igures
in an embrace with their own aureole, painted delicately in gold. On either
side are lineage holders supported by cushions and moon discs, with halos,
27 TibeT Journal
and the garb of Tibetan Buddhist monks. What lies below this top portion
of the composition is overwhelmingly intricate. Fire surrounds a dwarish
and big-bellied, four-armed black deity who stands upon a lotus throne with
astounding detail, so subtle, that it cannot be fully appreciated from afar. Fine,
perpetually glowing, gold lines deine every igure on this thangka and the
central igure is completely adorned with gold jewelry and gold-embellished
hand implements. Atop his head sits a crown with ive jewels and ive skulls.
A bit of his wild gold hair is tied together with a small serpent resembling
the delicately-rendered one draped around his neck like the gold jewelry it
accompanies. His upper left hand holds a blazing sword and his lower, a gri
gug (curved knife). His lower right hand holds a skull cup illed with blood
over which the curved knife in his left hovers. His upper right hand holds a
threepronged staff adorned with a skull and two corpse heads, with a vajra
base (Tib. kha twam ga). Animal skins of various species cover his shoulders
and genitals. They are so many in number that the feet, still attached to the
animal skins, rest on the downturned face and feet of the corpse upon which
this giant igure sits. A garland of human heads hangs, similarly, below his
waist. His heavy gold eyebrows and other deining facial features resemble
his jewelry with their spirally designs. This ornamentation draws the viewer’s
attention directly to the bright white teeth that protrude in a ierce manner
from the open red mouth of the deity, matching his three bulging white eyes.
His countenance, needless to say, is extremely wrathful as are those of the
retinue that surrounds him.
Five of those retinue igures are nearly identical, with faces like birds,
three eyes, human hands and feet, skull crowns atop their heads, blood-illed
skull cup in one hand, gold vajra in the other, standing upon a corpse resting
whose body is strewn across a lotus throne. The other four retinue deities
are distinguished by their varying physical forms, the things they wear, and
the objects they wield. There is a sixth bird-faced igure that bares wings in
addition to human arms and hands, but no visible feet. Something red, perhaps
entrails, hang from its mouth. Second to the central igure in dominance is a
goddess atop a horse in the bottom right corner of the thangka. “She is of a
black colour and her body is lean as a skeleton. The goddess has one face,
four hands and two feet…A human corpse lies in her mouth and she bares
her teeth…and she laughs thunderously. She has dice hanging from straps…
in the middle of a vast wild sea of blood and fat…whit a belt of severed heads
and a layed skin as cover…holding reins consisting of poisonous snakes…
An elephant-hide covers the upper portion of her body, and the skin of an ox
serves as a loin-cloth.”50
Equally detailed, on the bottom left corner is a igure with an identical
28 TibeT Journal
countenance to the central igure. He is similarly enveloped by ire, but in a more
chaotic manner; the sashes that ly from the robe that covers his entire body
like streamers, are lost in the lames. The red pattern resembling embroidery
that dominates his black robe, make his body nearly indistinguishable among
the ire from afar. He has two hands. The left holds a jewel-topped club and
the right holds a small vessel with a lid. The last distinct igure is ornamented
in the same exact fashion as the ive raven-headed, humanbodied igures.
Rather than a beak, however, this igure bears the face of a lion and rather
than a curved knife, he holds a sword with a gold vajra-handle. He kneels on
his right knee, modestly offering his blood-illed skull cup to the central igure
with his left hand.
His garland of human heads rests upon the corpse below him. The space
between this wrathful retinue of igures is illed with gruesome offerings—
skull cups full of not only blood, but eyes, noses, and other parts of
dismembered human bodies. The less gruesome offerings such as the torma
(sculptures made of lower and butter) have a iery design to match the terriic
mood of the painting.
The sheer number of elements packed into this painting and precision with
which the mass of details within each and every one is executed makes this
visual encounter an intentionally overwhelming one. The thangka’s black
background makes the painting all the more striking, creating an all-pervasive
dark space from which these amazing forms emerge and coalesce. The ierce
countenances whose faces tear through the blackness are wrathful deities,
who are most often the only deities for whom this technique is used.52 The
origin of the black thangka, Robert Linrothe tells us, dates to the death of a
revered teacher: “It is said in the ashes of a holy lama were applied to a canvas
and later a deity was drawn upon it in gold.53
These igures identities are manifold and small details distinguish one
ierce deity from another, especially when it comes to Enlightened Protectors
(the wrathful emanations of fully enlightened buddhas). This thangka is
representative of the most esoteric imagery Tibetan Buddhists use. While a
casual viewer of thangka would likely be able to recognize the central igure
as mGon po ngag po chen po (Skt. Mahakala) because of his basic attributes,
identifying other particulars in the painting requires specialized knowledge
or training. Nebesky-Wojkowitz’s Oracles and Demons of Tibet connects the
igure of mGon po ngag po chen po phyag bzhi pa (Four-Armed Mahakala) on
this painting with a description of the tradition by Ga Lotsawa, an early 12th
century commentator. According to “The Treasury of Lives” biographical
encyclopedia, he is known for having subjugated mGon po ngag po chen po,
the “Ravenfaced Dharma Protector” (chos skyong bya rog can), during his
29 TibeT Journal
practice in a cemetery near Bodhgaya.54 He is also credited with giving many
instructions and initiations related to these spiritual achievements, which
ultimately became quite fundamental to the Kagyu tradition. The lineage
holders at the top of the painting wear hats distinctly characteristic of this
sect. They may be lineage holders Shabdrung Ngagwang Namgyal and Je
Jamgo, but there is no information to directly verify such identiications.
No matter their identity, the two Tibetan Buddhist lineage igures symbolize
the connection between human practitioners and the “blissfully departed”,
nonhuman igure at the center of the canvas.
In the bottom left corner of the composition is a particular rendering of
the Mahakala known as yab drang srong legs ldan mgon po in silk robes. His
opposite is ultimate protector of the land of Tibet itself, Palden Lhamo. The ive
identical animal-headed deities are described as “raven-headed” by NebeskyWojkowitz and are called las kyi mgon po. As John C. Huntington points out,
“Kakamukha in Sanskrit is “crow headed” and is used in the sadhana but the
Tibetan “bya rog” is either crow or raven….Proper ornithology aside, in either
case the reference is to a big, black, aggressive, carrion – eating bird common
to the charnel ields of India, Nepal, and Tibet.”55
This retinue of raven-headed igures is essential to identifying this form of
Mahakala as the protector of the Chakrasamvara cycle of Tantras (Tib. khor
lo bde mchog), who is acknowledged as a principal protector by the Drukpa
Kagyu sect speciically. The inclusion of two igures in embrace at the top
center of the canvas aid viewers in making this identiication; the blue igure
is Chakrasamvara (Tib. bde mchog) and the red is his consort Vajravarahi
(Tib. rdo rje phag mo), a wrathful form of Vajrayogini. As a protector of such
powerful teachings mGon po nag po chen po phyag bzhi pa’s role is to forcefully
restrict the audience to those who have cultivated the proper intentions and base
of practice. Though Tibetan Buddhists typically direct ritual activities towards
Wrathful Protectors for worldly advantages, Enlightened Wrathful Protectors can
also facilitate advancement toward supramundane goals related to and including
the ultimate goal of enlightenment. Four-Armed Mahakala is one of very few
wrathful protectors who shares a similar status to the bodhisattva from which
he emanates. As protector of the Chakrasamvara Tantra, mGon po nag po chen
po phyag bzhi pa is an integral part of the Chakrasamvara Tantra and mandala,
through which the beneits of relating to him were initially discovered and his
own meditation practices were elaborated upon.
The Chakrasamvara Tantra is part of the bla na med pa’i rgyud (Skt.
Anuttarayoga Tantra) class. The iconography here is not nearly as universal
or archetypal as the ones presented thus far. Rather, the imagery included
in this painting is meant for a more restricted audience with appropriate
30 TibeT Journal
initiation. Non-initiates can still identify these iconographic formulas
by drawing on now, ubiquitious sources such as Robert Beer’s manual on
Tibetan Buddhist iconography. The ive-skull crown, for example, represents
the ive transcendent wisdoms of the celestial buddhas, according to Beer. In
another explanatory text regarding the sgrub thabs practices surrounding this
particular Mahakala, the 4th Sharmapa says: “rnam bzhi ’phrin las mdzad pa
phyag bzhi pa”, that the four arms are four forms of enlightened activity.56
However, this kind of iconographic analysis or “reading” of the painting is not
meant to be suficient for producing an understanding of the greater substance
within thangka painting like this one, which is “invariably kept in the locked
temples of the guardian deities which are found in every monastery.”57 This
nag thang of four-armed Mahakala can best be understood as a specialized
tool for advanced practitioners. In fact, it is this very deity, mGon po nag po
chen po, after which the mgon khang was originally named since each of the
four Tibetan Buddhist sect regards one of his forms as a prominent protector.58
In the following excerpt from an English translation of his treatise on
thangka paintings, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Guiseppe Tucci shares his
personal experience of the settings for which thangka like these are intended.
These temples still exist within nearly every Tibetan Buddhist monastery
today, where they are most often found hidden behind or below the main
shrine hall. As Gelugpa Geshe, Tenzin Sherab, said “mgon po phyag bzhi
ha lam bod pa’i chos pa tshang ma’i mgon khang nang la yod kyi red”:
“Four-Armed Mahakala is in nearly every Tibetan Protector Temple.” “These
thangka are usually kept covered by a piece of cloth, which is only removed
when a ceremony takes place in the mgon khang.”59 Guiseppe Tucci’s account
brings this setting to life, as he uses rich sensorial language to describe his
own entrance into the sacred space, the various black thangka painting’s
terrifying imagery therein, as well as the monk’s ritual performances in this
temple (which is, again, scarcely accessed by lay persons): “We shall also dwell
at length on the thangkas of the mGon khang, because although they too obey
certain ixed schemes, they often attain the highest artistic expression Tibetan
art is capable of. They are called tankas of the mGon khang because they are
almost always arranged in the mGon khang and represent the deities venerated
there. mGon khang, literally means “the mGon po’s house”; the mGon po is the
“Lord”, i.e. the Yi dam, the protecting deity of the sect or convent; in fact each
sect has its patron, its terrible defender, the terriic and warlike aspect of the
merciful deity who protects the devotees from the dangers of evil powers. The
sa skya pa [for instance] have Gur mgon and Phur pa, the dGe lugs pa have Ye
shes mgon po.
…Yi dam or mGon po, surrounded by the pageant of their terrible followers
31 TibeT Journal
thus reside and receive their cult in the mGon khang, mysterious shrines into
which it is very dificult to be admitted. The doors giving access to them
are low and narrow. On the doors are painted monstrous faces. The visitor,
even before entering, feels hesitating and lost in a half-light which the feeble
light of a lantern seems to make gigantic, plumbing its doubtful depths. The
monks too are restless and anxious. The locks creak, keys are turned, the
doors open. One has the impression of plunging headlong into bottomless
night, into solidiied darkness. Then the lamp, prevailing little by little over
the gloom, sculpts and carves against the black background forms and aspects
which do not belong to this world. you would think you were looking out
over the primordial chaos, where the vital urge inds expression in uncertain
and contradictory waverings or becomes incorporated into indistinct shapes,
immediately abandoned as by a sudden repentance, but so suddenly that the
two images overlap, melt one into the other and monsters are born out of
them, igures which are neither beast nor man, but are nevertheless one and
the other, without yet reaching a deinite aspect of their own: the beast has a
human expression, the man grins and twists like a brute.
…Meanwhile in that cave, which seems to sink into the abysses of the earth,
deep thuds echo with a constant rhythm and are repeated by mysterious hollows.
One advances in the anxious anticipation of being confronted at any moment by
something mysterious; one is led on by a resigned and awed curiosity; it is no
longer possible to turn back. Little by little the thuds become nearer, until the
sancta sanctorum is reached, where a priest, squatting in the ritual pose, recites
litanies and invocations in a monotonous voice, beating rhythmically on a large
drum with a crooked drumstick. The dark and empty rooms multiply its echo.
These priests pass their lives in the mGon khang, voluntary comrades of the
deities incumbing on all sides with their monstrous igures; they are buried in
darkness, as though plunged into primordial chaos to live the drama of creation
over again in that silence. When one enters, they do not move nor look up;
they remain with closed eyes, murmuring secret formulas, almost a lullaby
soothing and putting to sleep forces hidden within the images; as if, were the
crooning interrupted for an instant, they might wake up and break loose in all
their fury. The place itself captivates by its mystery, its shadows, its silences;
the faith, the pious awe of religious souls who have passed through the place
or lived there for centuries, seem to create a sacred atmosphere in which the
manifestation of the god’s divine spirit is felt to be imminent. As if to show
materially that these mGon khang sink back into the origin of all things, they are
often underground.”60 Geshe Tenzin Sherab says that these rituals, during which
the many drums (damaru, chos rnga, and rnga chen or hand drum, “religious
drum”, and “great drum”)61 are sounded repeatedly and mantras are recited, are
32 TibeT Journal
mainly performed for the overcoming of obstacles (Wylie. bar chad). They are
known as ’phrin bcol (“supplication for help”) rituals.
Therein the monks invite the wisdom being of Four-Armed Mahakala into
the dam tshig pa (“pledge image”), which may be the thangka itself or may
be formed by way of visualization in the absence of a proper image. Entry
of the wisdom being and the fruit of the practice which supplicates mgon
po nag po chen po phyag bzhi pa thus depends on the accurate appearance
of the Enlightened Protector just as that of Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma Deity
Yoga practice. In order to invoke Four-Armed Mahakala bskong rdzas or
offerings for entreaty are made. There are typically three kinds: nang mchod
or inner offerings, phy mchod or outer offerings, and gsang mchod or secret
offerings.62 These include a consecrated liquid that becomes bdud rtsi (Skt.
amrta) or a nectar of immortality, objects pleasing the senses such as butter
lamps, a drink, or incense, and lastly a symbolic offering consisting of innervisualization of presenting the deity of invocation with his female consort.
With support of a nag thang such as the “Thangka of Four-Armed Mahakala”,
the proper offerings, and mantras for invocation, a Tibetan Buddhist monk has
the means to summon and beseech the deity for protection. In this way, the
thangka has the potential to facilitate a transformative process: ‘phrin bcol’ or
supplication for help and the overcoming of obstacles.
Engaging with Vajrayana Imagery
At this point I hope to have accomplished two things: (1) to have provided
a concise explanation of the predominant visual content of each thangka, using
Tibetan Buddhist categories, histories, beliefs, and ritual texts, and (2) to
have deined the context for ritual engagement with each of these thangka. I
have laid out the predominant iconography, pertinent Vajrayana views, ritual
context, and circumstances for ritual engagement, but have not yet elaborated
on the substance of engagement—in other words, what precise role the object
plays in each ritual context and what inherent compositional or religiously
imbued qualities (whether by belief or ritual) enable that functionality.
Making these connections is my primary goal in order to better convey the
Tibetan Buddhist “vision” that unites practitioners across seemingly disparate
approaches to practice with images.
As I suggested in my introduction, Tibetan Buddhists rely on what is
translated as “support(s)”, ‘rten’ in Tibetan, to facilitate connections to the
enlightened body, speech, and mind of Vajrayana deities. There are three
classes of such sacred supports: body supports (‘sku rten’), verbal supports
(’gsung rten’), and mental supports (‘thugs rten’).
Scroll paintings, or thangkas, are one form of sku rten. They may be
33 TibeT Journal
classiied as such, according to Geshe Tenzin Sherab only when they are
properly consecrated—the most common form of which is the inscription of
seed syllables corresponding to the body, speech, and mind of the buddha,
OM AH HUM (pictured on Plate VI, in Lantsa script).
When I use the word ‘engagement’, I do so to refer to the use of a thangka
as body support (‘sku rten’). There are various ways of doing so within each
class of Tantra. One way of engaging in this manner is through use of carefully
designed Tibetan Buddhist ritual manuals, in their various forms (mdo mchog,
sgrub thabs, etc.), within which painted images are incorporated explicitly as
ritual tools. Hence the need to privilege these texts and to actively imagine
those Tibetan Buddhist rituals prescribed within them the way I have.
The English category describing the ritual role of thangka, “body
support”, is the so-called ‘calque’ translation of ‘sku rten’ and thereby lends
itself to multiple interpretations. I came to my own understanding of ‘sku
rten’ by observing Tibetan Buddhists’ usage of the word ‘kus,’ the majority
of which designate it as an honoriic term for ‘body’ and in many cases, in
direct reference to Vajrayana deities and the images representing them. My
interpretation upon irst encounter with this category was that the honoriic
‘body” to which the term refers was that of the practitioner. In other words, I
imagined sku rten as support for the body of a Tibetan Buddhist in performing
the physical practices that facilitate merit making and advance one on the
spiritual path, rather than support by the body, or “bodily support.” In other
words, thangka take on the same role as the physical human body by virtue of
their potential as instruments for spiritual advancement and thereby support
religious practice in a “bodily” fashion. This is why the majority of scholars,
both Euro-American Buddhist scholars and Tibetan Buddhists, explain the
meaning of term ‘sku rten’ as ‘bodily support.’ However, the English category
‘bodily support,’ is equally as truncated as ‘sku rten’ and potentially misleading.
Further, each class of Tantra offers its own formula for engaging thangka as
bodily support (Tib. sku rten). I have chosen these three particular thangka to
demonstrate three of these formulas for engagement with Vajrayana imagery.
I have chosen these thangka and corresponding rituals by virtue of their
associations with different classes of Tantra in an effort to fully unpack the
multi-faceted meaning of sku rten according to Tibetan Buddhists’ varied
means for engagement. With the “Thangka of Eight Medicine Buddhas”
I demonstrate how to do so according to Action Tantra rituals (which
resembles that of the Performance Tantra class as well); with the “Thangka
of Khadiravani Tara” I demonstrate how to do so according to the internal
practices of the Highest Yoga Tantra (which resembles that of the Yoga Tantra
class as well); with the “Thangka of Four-Armed Mahakala” I demonstrate
34 TibeT Journal
how wrathful deities, unique to the Vajrayana Buddhism, call for a particular
forms of engagement across the lower and higher classes of Tantra. Each
incorporates a kind of Deity Yoga (according to Tsongkhapa and the Dalai
Lama’s Gelugpa perspective), but those forms differ based on the body of
practitioners to which they cater, deined predominantly by karmic standing
and spiritual aspirations. In this spirit, Tsongkhapa says, “If it were true
that everyone should be a Buddhist, that everyone should be a Tantrist, and
that everyone should follow Highest Yoga Tantra because it is the best,
then Vajradhara would have taught only Highest Yoga Tantra.”63 While
conveying the potential of thangka as sku rten according to prescriptions for
engaging with images in Action Tantra, Performance Tantra, Yoga Tantra,
and Highest Yoga Tantra, I hope to assist my readers in understanding the
unity of vision that binds various levels of Tibetan Buddhist engagement
with images. It is only the depth of this vision that varies among Tibetan
Buddhist practitioners of disparate positions along the liturgical path and
the images to which they are privy to and engage with agree with those
positions. In each of the forthcoming sections I attempt to synthesize what
the thangka does on that level of engagement, how, and why.
Thangka as Bodily Support
The inscription found on the backside of the “Thangka of Eight
Medicine Buddhas” provides accessible language to aid understanding
of the Tibetan category ‘sku rten’, which encapsulates (in indigenous
terms) the transformative role of thangka in all Tibetan Buddhist forms of
engagement. It does so in relating the depicted forms, which fall under this
very category, to the ontological nature of the eight Medicine Buddhas: the
nature of their long sku (Skt. sambhogakaya) form. The irst line of the
composition reveals their ultimate numinous nature in the most explicit
words possible: “Although all victors are of one taste with the expanse
of great bliss, eight exalted, blissfully-departed companions arise out of
marvelous compassion for degenerate sentient beings.” The author’s plain
acknowledgement of a conceptual contrast between the formless existence
of these eight Medicine Buddhas with the “expanse of great bliss” and
the distinct visual forms of Medicine Buddhas painted upon this canvas,
intelligibly captures the relationship between these visual representations
and their ultimate meanings. Hence, the word rkyang, I have translated as
“although”, which lies directly between the two phrases describing these
seemingly dualistic and deining qualities. The short composition also
points to the Tibetan Buddhist logic behind these forms that arise out of
formlessness, which is that they are motivated to take conventional shape
35 TibeT Journal
(which lends itself to twodimensional depictions) out of their “marvelous
compassion for degenerate sentient beings.” The depicted igures are forms
of “bodily support” in that they provide the same support as the Supreme
Emanation Body, or mchog gi sprul sku—the body of sangs rgyas sha kya
thub pa, the historical Shakyamuni Buddha.
In Pema Namdol Thaye’s Concise Tibetan Art Book, (Tibetan title is lha
sky’i thig dpe mi pham dgongs rgyan) he shares a quote from Shakyamuni, in
his own English translation, from the drang srong rgyas pas zhus pa’i mdo,
or “The Sutra Requested by Rishi Vyasa” expressing the same sentiment.
Therein, Shakyamuni says to the great Indian adept, Rishi Vyasa, “when my
physical body leaves this world, praying and worshipping my images will
yield same virtues as now.”64 Belief in this prophecy is an integral aspect of
the Tibetan Buddhist “vision” (in David Morgan’s sense of the word) of these
sacred painted images. Among the forms of spiritual support provided by sku
rten, Geshe Tenzin Sherab places the greatest emphasis on the facet of its
instrumental role that is a basis for merit making. Like Pema Namdol Thaye,
Geshe repeatedly referred to foundations of this principle in sutra literature
as the utmost authoritative source and one that is suficient to have deined
the sacred nature of Tibetan Buddhist imagery for Tibetan Buddhists of the
present and future.
Based on this consensus among Tibetan Buddhists in designating the chief
function of sku rten as a source of merit in the same sense as the historical
Shakyamuni Buddha, it seems that this Medicine Buddha thangka embodies
the category most explicitly. The circumstances behind the creation of this
thangka are conirmed by the inscription, recorded by “the highest of the
yellow hat’s supreme luminary of teachings Achi Tunomonhan in response
to the faithful, devoted, and discerning Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma’s request.”
Perhaps Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma did nothing more than fulill an oracle
or astrologer’s suggestion, simply commissioning the work and seeking
consecration for the means of overcoming a personal obstacle. Nevertheless,
in such a scenario, the thangka has already fulilled the role of sku rten in
facilitating her accumulation of merit. Her action creates the potential for
other sentient beings to encounter the worldly-approximation of ultimate
reality, an action along the chain of las ’bras (“cause and effect”, Skt. karma)
that is virtuous and therefore meritorious.
As stated previously, however, Achi Tunomonhan’s inscription calls for
blessings of the supramundane variety, which provide grounds for connecting
related Medicine Buddha rituals that have the potential to ultimately lead
Tibetan Buddhist practitioners to those spiritual accomplishments.65 The mdo
mchog or “Sutra Ritual”, which despite its name, is of the Action Tantra class,
36 TibeT Journal
calls for very speciic modes of engagement with the imagery found on this
very thangka. The Wish Fulilling Jewel does not explicitly entail any kind
of inner-visualization of the Medicine Buddhas or Lineage Gurus; according
to the instructions themselves, it is a strictly external Action Tantra ritual
and requires no empowerment. The propitiatory Sutra Ritual, nevertheless,
integrates the thangka’s imagery by offering instructions for non-cerebral
engagement. A Tibetan Buddhist practitioner such as one with a devotional
thangka like this, might perform the practice in their home directly before
the image itself. Therein they would orient all actions entailed in the ritual
towards the thangka, just as if the Medicine Buddha, King of Lapis Light
appeared in his sprul pa’i sku (Skt. Nirmanakaya) form in that very place.
These performative acts, such as prostration and the seven limbs of practice
attached “engage” the image in that the eficacy of their transformative
potential for the Tibetan Buddhist actor, depends greatly on the holy status of
the image towards which the practitioner directs his or her intentions.
This “holy” status and potential for such ritual engagement depends on
whether or not it has been consecrated according to Vajrayana ritual texts or
traditions. When I asked Geshe Tenzin Sherab whether or not a thangka that
has not been consecrated can act as sku rten. He responded as follows:
རབས་ུ་གནས་ཟེར་ུས་དཔེར་ན་དངོས་པོ་ྟག་ུ་གནས་པ་ྦད་དེ་མེ་དང་ུས་འྲོ་བླག་མ་
འྲོ་བ་གཏོར་བཞིག་མ་འྲོ་བ་དེ་འྲ་གནས་ཡག་གི་ཆེད་ུ་གཙོ་བོ་རབས་གནས་ཟེར་ཨ་ནི་
དེ་ཡང་ག་རེ་རེད་ཟེར་ན་རབས་གནས་ཟེར་ཡག་གི་དོན་དག་གཙོ་བོ་ག་རེ་རེད་ཟེར་ན་ུ་དེ་
བཞེངས་ནས་ུ་དེ་ལ་སངས་ྱས་ྱི་ཡེ་ཥེས་ཟེར་ྱི་ཡོད་རེད་ད་སངས་ྱས་ྱི་ུ་དེ་བཞེངས་ནས་
སངས་ྱས་དེ་ལ་དཔེར་ན་ྟོན་པའི་ུ་གཅིག་བཞེངས་ཡོད་ན་ཐང་ག་གཅིག་བཞེངས་ཡོད་ན་
ཐང་ག་དེ་ལ་རབས་གནས་ྱས་མཁན་དེས་དམིགས་པ་གང་འྲ་བཏང་དགོས་ྱི་ཡོད་རེད་ཟེར་ན་
སངས་ྱས་བཅོམ་ྡན་འདས་དངོས་ུ་ཨ་ནི་ཐང་ག་དེ་ལ་བུགས་པ་འྲ་པོ་ཐིམ་པ་འྲ་པོ་ཅིག
དེ་འྲས་ྱི་བསམ་ློ་གཏོང་དགོས་ྱི་ཡོད་རེད་སངས་ྱ་བཅོམ་ྡན་འདས་ྱི་ྱིན་བླབས་ཡང་
ན་སངས་ྱས་བཅོམ་ྡན་འདས་ྱི་ཡེ་ཥེས་ཟེར་དགོས་རེད་བ་དེའི་དངོས་ུ་གང་ྟར་ཡང་སངས་
ྱས་བཅོམ་ྡན་འདས་ལ་ཞེ་ས་མ་ྱས་ན་སངས་ྱས་བཅོམ་ྡན་འདས་ྱི་སེམས་དེ་ཐང་ག་དེ་ལ་
བུགས་སོང་ྙམ་པའི་བསམ་ློ་ཅིག་དེ་ྱས་པ་ཡིན་ུས་ཐང་ག་དེ་ྩ་ཆེན་པོ་ཅིག་ཆགས་ྱི་ཡོད་
རེད་ཟེ་རབས་གནས་ཟེར་དོན་དག་དེ་རེད་དེ་འྲ་ཅིག་གིས་རབས་གནས་ྱས་མཁན་ྱི་བསམ་
ློ་དེ་འྲ་ྨོན་ལམ་བྱབ་ཡོང་ུས་ཙམ་པ་ལ་ཨ་ནི་ཐང་ག་དེ་ྩ་ཆེན་པོ་ཆགས་རེད་ཐང་ག་དེ་ལ་
ྱིན་ླབས་འུག་གི་རེད་ཨ་ནི་ཐང་ག་ུན་རིང་པོ་འུང་བ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞིས་གནོད་པ་ག་ཚོད་ཡོད་
ན་ཡང་ཐང་ག་དེ་གནས་ུབ་ཡག་ཅིག་ལ་དེ་འྲས་ཟེར་ྱི་ཡོད་རེད།
37 TibeT Journal
My English translation of Geshe’s oral response goes as follows:
To consecrate something is mainly done so that the thing always dwells in
it and so it remains completely through ire and water, until it is destroyed.
Then, moreover, if you ask the reason for that, if you ask what is the chief
purpose of what is called consecration…by creating an image…what
is called the exalted wisdom of a Buddha…By creating that image of a
buddha, for instance—if you have created a statue, if you have created
a thangka—the person who does the consecration to that image should
visualize like the actual Buddha, the Supramundane Victor, enters and
dissolves into the thangka. The blessings of the buddha or the wisdom
of the buddha (however you call it), if I speak informally “the buddha’s
mind”, actually enters the image. If one has that thought, the thangka
becomes a very holy thing. This is the chief purpose of consecration. If
the person who does the consecration contemplates in that way, when one
prays in that way, then that thangka becomes very holy. The blessings will
be infused into the thangka. It is said that like that, the image can remain
no matter how much harm [is done] by the great four elements.
Though Geshe Tenzin Sherab’s answer is not direct, he does offer the
pertinent facts in the words of a Tibetan Buddhist. He expresses the fact that
that the person who consecrates the thangka, in contemplating the invocation
and infusion of the “actual” (Tib. dngos su) enlightened being into the painting,
is capable of making such happen.
With this information, we can surmise that an un-consecrated thangka
cannot act as sku rten. Over and above that inference, however, Geshe Tenzin
Sherab lends insight into the sacred status of consecrated Tibetan Buddhist
images which fall under the category sku rten with which even an outsider has
the potential to better understand a painting of Eight Medicine Buddhas as a
ritual tool. I have chosen to relay this ritual in particular, in order to elucidate
the Tibetan Buddhist vision of the thangka as divine presence, a beyond
somatic manner of “seeing” Tibetan Buddhist thangka that this particular
mode of engagement epitomizes. Such an understanding cannot be contained
within a single discipline approach and that ritual, in its living form, is best
brought to light in such a discursive manner.
This external form of ritual engagement with the “Thangka of the Eight
Medicine Buddhas” reveals the practical and metaphysical equivalence
between a painted image and the numinous form it denotes from a Tibetan
Buddhist’s perspective. Whether or not Jetsunma Lobsang Drolma herself
even practiced a Sutra Ritual such as that described in The Wish Fulilling
38 TibeT Journal
Jewel, the consecrated thangka exudes this presence in the eyes of a faithful
Tibetan Buddhist. It is by virtue of that fact that her mere patronage is a meritmaking act. This devotional “Thangka of the Eight Medicine Buddhas” is, for
this very reason, what Robert Thurman refers to as a one of three sprul pa’i
sku (Skt. Nirmanakaya) forms. It is “The Artistic Emanation Body”66, a term
that encapsulates the essence of sku rten.
In this section I hope to have conveyed the liturgically-bound qualities of
thangka for which Tibetan Buddhists assign them indigenous label ‘sku rten’
and the origin of the category for sacred images itself in the Sutra Vehicle.
These foundations reveal the irst and most fundamental facet of all images
classiied as sku rten: the equivalence in ontological, practice-related, and
social terms between the deities of properly-consecrated thangka and an
enlightened being in its corporeal or ultimate form. The foundations of the
category also reveal how thangka act as bodily support in providing a ield of
merit for Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, the accessibility of which makes the
labor of creating objects of sku rten (thangka, but also statues) merit making
acts themselves.
Imagery as Antidote
At the outset of this thesis, I called Deity Yoga the “foremost signiicant”
ritualized Tibetan Buddhist practice supported by painted imagery. I did so
because the thangka plays a structured role in the systematized soteriology of
Tibetan Buddhism. The practice of Deity Yoga reaches far beyond proximal
spiritual objectives such as merit making, as described above. Among
the Gelugpa and Kagyu schools, Deity Yoga is the most essential practice
differentiating the Sutra of Perfection Vehicle from the Tantra Vehicle. As
Tsongkhapa urges in The Great Exposition of the Secret Mantra (the treatise
I have referred to continuously, per Jeffery Hopkin’s translation): “you must
gain conviction that cultivation of deity yoga is indispensible.”67 Here is why:
At the time of the fruit, the base—a body adorned with the major and minor
marks—and the mind of non-apprehension [of inherent existence] which
depends on it abide at one time as an undifferentiable entity. In the same
way at the time of the path, the method is that the yogi’s body appears to
this own mind in the aspect of a Tathagata’s body, and at the same time
his mind becomes the wisdom apprehending suchness—the non-inherent
existence of all phenomena….This should be understood as [the meaning
of] undifferentiable method and wisdom [in the Mantra Vehicle]. Through
cultivating the yoga of joining these two at the same time one attains the state
in which non-dualistic wisdom itself appears as Form Bodies to trainees.68
39 TibeT Journal
The thangka acts as a ritual tool of the “sku rten” classiication, in this
context in that it is the enlightened body itself, in its third sprul pa’i sku
(Skt. Nirmanakaya) forms, “The Artistic Emanation Body”, upon which the
practitioner relies most in their pursuit of uprooting the deilement of dualistic
vision through Deity Yoga. In the words of Tarthang Tulku, “For most men,
appearance is obscured and laden with ego-projections. In such a state, our
world, our body, and our perceptions cannot provide ego-transcending objects
for our meditation, and must temporarily be replaced by an “expanded vision”
of the worlds, deities and qualities of awareness depicted in thanka art.”69 So it
is upon the thangka that the Tibetan Buddhist relies for these “ego-transcending
objects.” Moreover, it is through the “force”70 of continued familiarization
with these enlightened forms that the practitioner begins to work towards truly
embodying “divine pride” in the manner that enables the Highest Yoga Tantra
style of Deity Yoga (that which involves generation, completion, and direct
meditation on emptiness). Concomitantly, with this force, the practitioner
begins to realize the hidden realities within the painting.
Most Tibetan Buddhists would not refer to any part of the Medicine
Buddha Sutra Ritual as lha’i rnal byor or “Deity Yoga” because it does not
call for bdag mskyed or mdun bskyed (self-generation or front-generation)
of the deity’s form within one’s mind. However, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher
may very well encourage their students to incorporate such. Though The Wish
Fulilling Jewel, is an example of an Action Tantra that does not explicitly
direct the practitioner in any visualization, according Tsongkhapa (pictured
at the top of this thangka) and the Dalai Lama, one may certainly apply
the techniques of higher classes of Tantra to the lower ones. In the case of
the Medicine Buddha Sutra Ritual, there are concise yet vivid descriptions
of each Medicine Buddha contained within the “Prayers to the Individual
Medicine Buddhas” along with which one visualizes the form in their mind.
Many Action Tantras do provide descriptions such as that provided in a sgrub
thabs text and are often embedded in the sentences of invocation. Again, it
is during that time the practitioner recites those lines of invocation that he
or she has the opportunity to incorporate mdun bskyed, or front-generation.
Jeffery Hopkin’s translation and preface together are actually called ‘Deity
Yoga in the Action and Performance Tantra’. For according to Tsongkhapa,
“many texts of the Action Tantra class do not clearly explain meditation on
oneself as a deity; rather, they describe a process of imagining a deity in front
of oneself and receiving a feat, or capacity for a special activity, from that
deity.”71 For the purpose of my thesis, however, I will use the “Thangka of
Khadiravani Tara” as a vehicle to exploring this deeper form of engagement
with the painted imagery.
40 TibeT Journal
Exploring how a speciic “Artistic Emanation Body”, namely this thangka
of Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma, facilitates that process of relating to the
sambhogakaya realm has the potential to yields insights to the progressively
advancing Tibetan Buddhist vision of Vajrayana “art” within the path itself,
as well as the role that inherent compositional qualities (the “art” itself) of
the painting play in the transformative process. For the paintings themselves
“are rather calculated representations of a symbolic system which has
speciic reference to human psychology and Tantric Buddhist religion and
philosophy.”72 Their aesthetic details, as previously stated, “correspond to
psychic realities.”73
Since I have already elaborated on the liturgical rituals involving Deity
Yoga in which a Tibetan Buddhist might use Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma as
the yidam or tutelary deity, I will now explore how, therein, these calculated
representations might operate.
This is the kind of insight that art historians seek: how the aesthetic
qualities of a work of art transform those who view art and how the creator
consciously or unconsciously produced those visual qualities. This insight into
soteriological mechanisms is also a kind of insight that religious scholars seek.
Some visual components of the thangka operate as skillfull means on
the utmost conventional level. Many iconographic elements, for example,
relate to the historical realities of Tibetan Buddhist ritual practices during the
time they were formulated. Some of the offerings you see in this Sengdeng
Nagkyi Drolma thangka, for example, resemble those that would be given to
a houseguest in Ancient India. Since they are familiar ones to the practitioner,
the visual representations of them in paintings assist in the innercontemplation
of making offerings and in this way, this type of iconography relates generally
to the human mind.
When it comes to Jetsun Drolma, what are the psychic realities that
correspond to the various symbols Tibetan Buddhists capture in their mind’s
eye while practicing Deity Yoga? To answer this question, I feel that it is
necessary to revert back to the ultimate identity of the being represented on
the thangka. Drolma is a fully enlightened buddha who achieved liberation in
female form many eons ago and vowed, upon her own liberation, to remain
within the cycle of samsara in female form until all sentient beings are
liberated. She is, thus, a chos sku (Skt. dharmakaya) manifestation in the long
sku (Skt. Sambhogakaya) form—a goddess reborn from the Void, or noumenal
reality that encompasses both nirvana and samsara, and according to legend,
from the preexisting male bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara’s (Tib. Chenrezig) tear.
“Long sku” refers to the luminous form of clear light the Buddhist practitioner
attains upon reaching the highest dimensions of practice. All bodhisattvas
41 TibeT Journal
are included in this category and all beings therein are above the category of
merely human. This is considered one of the primary means through which the
chos sku is made manifest. According to tradition, those skilled in meditation,
as well as other highly realized Tibetan Buddhists, may gain access to the
long sku and receive direct transmission of doctrine. It is upon these kinds of
experiences by Tibetan Buddhists with long sku emanations that the practices
and associated texts of Deity Yoga are based and the complete appearances of
deities, including iconographic details, are founded. “As such the symbolism
and imagery of Tantric iconography is calculated to produce a direct intuition
of the Tantric vision through evoking fundamental psychological forces which
accelerate the process of spiritual maturation in the aspirant (sadhaka).”74 This is
why, according to Tibetan Buddhists, the deities manifest themselves in this way.
Whether a Tibetan Buddhist is making offerings, a mental commitment,
or manipulating energies within their body; visualizing the deity above his or
her head, visualizing oneself having transformed into the deity, or visualizing
the deity in the space in front of him or her, during the practice of Deity Yoga,
he or she relies on these appearances. He or she attempts to exact the image
on the painting within the minds eye in order to reproduce the same vision
realized by a highly achieved Tibetan Buddhist practitioner—the author of the
sgrub thabs who might have received direct transmission from that deity. The
adept, having cultivated bodhicitta, lends the formula for realization to others.
In fact, the etymology of the word thangka itself relects that transmission—
it comes from the word “thang yig” which refers to a written record, and a
thangka is a sort of record of the otherworldly appearance of deities recorded
by those adepts who have encountered them in ultimate reality within which
they “exist.” Therefore, the lineage holders, just like retinue igures, connote
“[expressions of] the irradiation of truth and the spiritual link uniting those
who have been initiated into the same mystery.”75
With an understanding of the ontological nature of the deity represented,
access to the imagery, and knowledge of its scripturally assigned purpose, one
can connect the aesthetic qualities of a deity’s appearance such as Sengdeng
Nagkyi Drolma to the most widely shared philosophical concept across
Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions— Upaya (Skt.) (Tib. thabs),
or the doctrine of skillful means, is enabled by a greater doctrine
of epistemology concerning the relativity of truth for which I will provide
a concise interpretation: Tibetan Buddhists believe that all we perceive is
necessarily framed by the “conventional truth” and by subjective qualities of
the human mind. The conventional and ultimate truths are simply two distinct
levels of perception or understanding, the latter more reined than the former.
“Truth (sat-ya) does not describe a particular kind of knowledge, but a state
42 TibeT Journal
of being….”76 Samvritisatya refers to the idea of “conventional truth.” That
which is conventional is our perception of things as irst existing separately
from us (subject-object dualism), or the idea of the independence of those
things that one is able to see and name. Paramarthasatya refers to the “ultimate
truth” or the doctrine of emptiness (Skt. sunyata, Tib. stong pa nyid). The
ultimate truth is the interdependently arising nature of all phenomena including
oneself. Thus Tibetan Buddhist logic essentially renders the positivist notion
of absolute truth illusive. As our understanding of the world is limited to our
perception, even the strongest fact is not absolute, but relative.
So while Buddhist doctrine illustrates two truths, it does not attribute
“existence” to either. Impermanence, interdependence, and emptiness are
“truths” in that they characterize all that we perceive. They may seem
“absolute” in that they are enduring qualities, but are actually contingent on
the human capacity of perception and reason.
Tibetan Buddhists rely on tested methods (recorded in Tibetan Buddhist
scriptures) to improve the human capacity of perception and reason to begin
to perceive the ultimate reality. As my discussion has implicitly indicated,
Tibetan Buddhist epistemology advocates both sensory and extra-sensory
perception as legitimate modes of knowledge. Tibetan Buddhist adepts
who have achieved direct perception of the ultimate reality thereby have
the power to produce visual upaya. Every “Artistic Emanation Body” is
just that. The appearances of Tantric deities are perceived by meditative
extrasensory perception and canonized to assist others along the path. In the
words of Tharthang Tulku Rinpoche, “The Sambhogakaya, of which this art
is one aspect, bridges the distance between many apparently contradictory
statements, between different levels of awareness and forms of existence,
between the ultimate and the conventional. A very unique ridge, it links
but does not separate. It manifests an essential connection without thereby
individuating things or asserting that there exist things whose differences stand
in need of reconciliation. The Sambhogakaya is not some subtle medium in
which all entities are suspended. Rather it is the entities themselves standing
open and fully revealing themselves to an awareness that is aware of its and
their “sunya” character.”77
Having described the primary objective of Deity Yoga, the multidimensional
ontological nature of the goddess Tara, and the philosophical foundation of
her appearance, I can return to the question, “In what ways are these “psychic
realities” relected in the imagery at hand? Both Tarthang Tulku and Guiseppe
Tucci place great emphasis on the importance of beauty, as a relection of the
ultimate bliss in which enlightened beings abide in. In the words of Tucci, “The
main object of these paintings is to facilitate for their beholders a revulsion
43 TibeT Journal
from the plane of samsaric existence to those immaculate spheres.”78 And
in the words of Tarthang Tulku, “Man has at his disposal two ambassadors
who help him negotiate the subtle entrance through Tibetan art into the
Sambhogakaya realm. One is beauty, and the other is a cultivated mindfulness
of sunyata….Beauty is only that particular aspect of appearance that we readily
accept as a manifestation of the ultimate in our world.”79 The beauty found
in the overall atmosphere of the thangka (the bright colors, the harmony of
Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma’s form and color with her environment, her tranquil
gaze, and so forth), however, cannot operate as a tool for destroying dualistic
vision without the doctrine of emptiness. When we learn to “extend our awe”
with the artistic renderings of the Sambhogakaya forms to all aspects of our
world we begin to awaken to the reality of bliss and emptiness. Another sgrub
thabs text I found prompts the practitioner after self-generation to ask him or
herself directly with regard to form and color, “nang na ’dug gam, phyir ’dug
gam”80—is it inside, is it outside? The meditator must examine the form you
see in this thangka within their mind’s eye in this way in order to grasp the
bcas med or unfabricated quality of the appearances.
These “Artistic Emanation Bodies”, of course, conform to the sambhogakaya
as closely as possible. Those rapturous bodhisattvas manifest, out of
compassion, into forms whose marks of perfection were relayed to Thogs
med (Skt. Asanga) by the future buddha Byams mgon (Skt. Maitreya) in
the mngon rtogs rgyan (Skt. Abhisamayalamkara Sastra), classiied as a
commentary on the shes rab phar phyin mdo (Skt. Prajñaparamita Sutras).
So these particular aesthetic qualities, of course associated with “beauty”,
are not only explicitly embedded in Vajrayana philosophy, but common to
all of Mahayana Buddhism. Those of the thirty-two marks visible in this
painting of Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma, include the bump atop her head,
which is the result of continually visualizing her yidam there, long limbs
which are the result of never refusing the needy, and smooth skin as the
result of nourishing others. Buddhas also achieve bodies of very particular
proportions, which are generally conveyed in texts like this and elaborated
upon in technical treatises for the creators of sku rten. In fact, “Ancient texts
on Buddhist art declare that the deities never enter forms other than those of
the prescribed proportions, with their numerous designating marks. We may
understand this to mean that religious depictions cannot introduce us to the
Sambhogakaya action unless they are executed so as to correspond exactly
to both ultimate reality and to the speciic way in which human beings much
approach and grasp it.”81
Wrathful Appearance as Protection Wrathful appearances are no different
from peaceful ones in this way. Nag po chen po is an enlightened being
44 TibeT Journal
who, similarly, will only inhabit his intended “Artistic Emanation Body”
(Robert Thurman’s term for thangka which conveys its status as one of three
sprul pa’i sku or nirmanakaya forms) if his deliberate form is exacted and
consecrated in the manner described by Geshe Tenzin Sherab. In the words
Pema Namdol Thaye, “ if the forms and images of the Divine bodies are not in
proportion and erroneously done then, a great vice has been committed and if
all the measurements are accurate it is a virtue.”82 In that sense, any religious
engagement like that I alluded to in the mgong khang, such as those ’phrin
bcol rituals to remove obstacles, both depend on and activate the thangka’s
imagery. To preserve the virtue of creating or commissioning the “Thangka of
Four-Armed Mahakala”, however, the beholder must control who views and
engages with it. Geshe Tenzin Sherab himself said that this thangka should
not be displayed in a main shrine hall because many simply won’t understand it.
Since the main shrine hall is a place for learning, a nag thang or black thangka
of a wrathful deity such as this one might act as a hindrance. Restricted access to
the mgon khang and the rituals that are performed therein conveys this danger.
In this way, the imagery of the “Thangka of Four-Armed Mahakala” is quite
different than that of the Medicine Buddha or Green Tara. When Geshe Tenzin
Sherab said that details such as the proper identiication of Green Tara among
the nuanced twenty-one are not important to the average Tibetan Buddhist lay
practitioner, he intimated the inalienable power of that imagery. Those who do
not embody the liturgically concordant vision of Tibetan Buddhist images of
buddhas and bodhisattvas, are nevertheless, privy to its transformative power
merely by seeing (in the somatic sense). This is not the case when it comes to
a nag thang or black thangka such as this one. For these images are created
for the penetrating vision of an advanced practitioner.
Having demonstrated the ritual context in which Tibetan Buddhist
monks engage with images of the divine and the relationship between two
dimensional images and the sambhogakaya forms (by way of my elaboration
on the irst two thangka), the vision of this thangka of Nag po chen po phyag
bzhi pa or Four-Armed Mahakala through the eyes of an accomplished tantric
practitioner can better be understood—even despite the little information I
had access to about the goings-on of the mgon khang. So how can we describe
a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner’s vision of this thangka of mGon po nag po
chen po phyag bzhi pa? This thangka is one that embodies all three facets
of sku rten when engaged with according to tantric mandates. This image is
bodily support in the primary sense: it is a ield of merit that is, according to
liturgy, equivalent to the body of the historical Buddha himself. The nature
of engagement with this image in its natural setting, the mgon khang, is
propitiatory and the image evidently acts as divine presence in that manner
45 TibeT Journal
of engagement. Moreover, as evidenced by seed syllable inscriptions on the
back, the thangka has been ritually imbued with the true ro (“taste”, meaning
essence) of the wrathful deities.
Further, the imagery on this “Thangka of Four-Armed Mahakala” itself
is an antidote. As Four-Armed Mahakala shares the same fully enlightened
status as Sengdeng Nagkyi Drolma he may also act as a tutelary deity.
In that role the details of his form and surroundings—the appearances
conveyed as one doctrine with the original transmission of the deity—are the
transformative tools of direct ritual engagement. Their details “correspond to
psychic realities” in the same way as those of the Medicine Buddha and Green
Tara images. Upon his encounter with a similar image in the mgon khang
or Protector Temple, Guiseppe Tucci recorded his own impression of those
details: “There is no cruelty or malice in their eyes, but the fury of monsters,
exploding with the violence of a storm; you expect them not to speak but
to howl like the wind, not to move with a wild animal’s agility but to hurl
themselves about with a hurricane’s uncontrollable vehemence.”83
Four-Armed Mahakala’s appearance is perhaps the most dynamic in that
it is meant to demonstrate the aspect of enlightened activity that is forcefully
purifying and capable of dominance over anything. Enlightened Protectors
such as Four-Armed Mahakala differ in their methods from the Medicine
Buddhas and Bodhisattva Tara, but not in their wisdom. Their terrifying
appearances are interpreted by the human eye, and are therefore, adapted to
the human eye. So given human Tibetan Buddhist practitioner’s conventional
context, a garland of human heads is a functional symbol, which exempliies
the Enlightened Protectors alternate method of obliterating human ego; he
wields control over conventional deilements and then uses them as weapons
for virtuous means. Various details like this demonstrate the violent destruction
of ignorance, attachment, and desire with symbols that are familiar to those
of the desire realm practitioners who are still plagued with these deilements.
Such imagery facilitates transformation in that its inherent qualities (for
those with the proper foundational training) enable the process of subverting
conventionally “polluting” substances and beginning to direct those seemingly
negative things towards virtuous ends along the path to enlightenment for the
beneit of all.
The ritual context I have provided reveals the third instrumental role
of thangka as sku rten—“the temple is a projection of the universe, indeed
cosmos in its essential paradigm, they also defend all men from all sorts of
perils and evils.”84 As Guiseppe Tucci intimates here, the “Thangka of FourArmed Mahakala” offers protection. Both initiates and neophytes must grasp
the irst two facets of the Tibetan Buddhist vision of thangka as sku rten
46 TibeT Journal
(as demonstrated in the sections “Thangka as Bodily Support” and “Image
as Antidote”), however, in order to grasp this one. It is these insights into
the power and substance of thangka as sku rten that ground my potentially
bewildering claim that thangka, for all theoretical intents and purposes,
have agency. It is by virtue of its sanctioned status as sku rten (evidenced
by consecrating inscriptions on the backside), its oneness with the numinous
deity it depicts, and the divine nature of the visual qualities themselves
that give the thangka the potential to act as protection. The fact that the
“Thangka of Four-Armed Mahakala” is to be kept in the mgon khang where
practitioners who are not prepared to practice the most advanced Vajrayana
teachings cannot see it, indicates the conventionally confounding nature of the
relationship between this terrifying imagery and its pacifying purpose. Tibetan
Buddhist prescriptions for wrathful images also lend evidence to my claim
that one must grasp the more basic qualities of thangka as sku rten and the
foundational layers of the complete Tibetan Buddhist vision (those expressed
in the preceding classes of Tantra) before attempting to fully understand the
instrumentality of wrathful images, whether spiritually or theoretically.
mThong-grol or Liberation Through Sight: Conclusion
“It is said that, even if one measurement is accurate it will give peace to all
sentient beings.”85 After familiarization with the ritual context for which these
three sku rten were created one can begin to understand how exactly “they
produce the liberation of the beholder, if he looks on them with pure eyes and
penetrating mind.”86 Thangka paintings are ritual objects and when treated as
such can be understood on a deeper level than merely through an art historical
“reading” of a thangka, especially by those without direct experience. “For
these paintings operate like the texts of the Great Vehicle or of the Adamantine
Vehicle. It is necessary, in order to read their symbols and their forms, to
understand their mysterious language, it is necessary to live their meaning.”87
I ultimately arrived at this state of inquiry into thangka by virtue of my own
captivation with this “mysterious language.” After doing research utilizing
museum catalogues and general treatises by both Tibetan Buddhists and EuroAmerican Buddhist scholars, into the production process, artists, technical
treatises, styles, iconography, and so forth, I found myself searching again and
again for a piece of writing that made direct and explicit connections between
these lat images, the boundless beings they represent, and the transformative
soteriological power they behold. Tharthang Tulku’s Sacred Art of Tibet, an
introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Art, was the only source among all that I
read that raises direct ontological questions about Vajrayana deities and these
“artworks” within which they dwell.88 While some authors do allude to the
47 TibeT Journal
indigenous category sku rten to describe thangka, what thangka do in that
role as a ritual object is completely glossed over. Some scholars provide the
basic deinition of sku rten (though few actually use the Tibetan term) that is
substantiated by the Sutra Vehicle (as exempliied in the section “Thangka
as Bodily Support).89 Yet, the Tibetan Buddhist thangka operates within the
Tantra Vehicle, which assigns much greater potential to sacred images (sku
rten). That is why I advocate the pertinence of substantiating Tantric beliefs
and ritualized practices that rely on sacred imagery to enhance my own
(and hopefully others’) understanding of the ill-deined role of the thangka
as sku rten in Euro-American Tibetan Buddhist scholarship thus far. Robert
Linrothe represented most closely the style of analysis I was seeking in his
article “Mirror Image: Deity and Donor as Vajrasattva” in which he uses two
particular images as avenues to gaining insight into practice and belief. By
contrast, in two back-to-back chapters centered on Mahakala within Demonic
Divine: Himalayan Art and Beyond, Robert Linrothe and Marilyn M. Rhie
(in that order) discuss the goings-on in the mgon khang and the elaborate
iconography of a deity whose thangka would be found in the mgon khang.
However, the two scholars make no connection between the images at the
center of the discussion and the Tibetan Buddhist monks who commission
those works, integrate them into their environments, and use them for
transformative purposes. These connections are either taken for granted or
considered unimportant.
Art historical analyses of thangka paintings are almost exclusively found
in museum catalogues and typically take a very straightforward approach to
“reading” the works wherein symbols are equated with their “meanings.”
Given that tendency, it is no surprise that many Euro-Americans understand
Hindu and Buddhist artworks depicting deities are representations or
embodiments of the whole of religious doctrine. Without being exposed to the
role these “representations” play in the eradication of dualistic thinking, one
cannot know that these are not merely reiied symbols with lat iconographic
formulas intended for reverent display. Many historians positively reinforce
this trend, particularly when it comes to Vajrayana art. More than one element
of a painting is often said to connote the same theme in this kind of “reading”
in an effort to convey a whole cosmology while actually leading readers even
further from the intended Tibetan Buddhist vision. Using iconography as
designation is contrary to its liturgically deined purpose.
In the words of the insightful Tarthang Tulku, “Visualization does not
involve a relation between things at all. We are accustomed to think in terms
of a ixed picture according to which some “things exist.” The Vajrayana is not
interested in adding some new things to the list of existences; rather it urges us
48 TibeT Journal
to give up our preoccupation with “things” altogether…”90 Shouldn’t the way
we talk about thangka paintings, then, avoid equating each “symbol” with
its “meaning”? As Robert Orsi emphasizes in Between Heaven and Earth,
contemporary religious studies scholars in general are all too preoccupied
with assigning meanings rather than exploring the web of relationships that
constitutes religion itself. After all, with insight into the functional meaning of
objects classiied as ‘sku rten’ we can see that these are not mere representations.
The aesthetics themselves are of divine origin and share divine status with the
long sku (Skt. Sambhogakaya) forms they represent.
Tibetan thangka paintings can now be found in many Euro-American
museums and personal collections where they are most often treated as
art objects or ethnographic artifacts. In my own research on Tibetan scroll
painting I have found that Euro-American Buddhist scholars, Tibetologists,
and art historians tend to restrict their exposition and analysis to the historical
identities, issues of provenance, regional patterns, symbolic and narrative
content, or the craft itself.91 Tibetan sources, of course, offer a great number
of didactic texts that lend insight to the substances of such works, but by
virtue of their assimilated audience, need not discuss the nature of their
iconographic representations or the philosophical underpinnings to their status
as eficacious ritual objects. Viewers who are not conditioned to apprehend
the numinous essence of an art object, must draw these connections on an
analytical level to access the many levels of understanding of Vajrayana art to
which an initiate has access. With the inlux of extraordinary Tibetan artifacts
into Euro-American museums, the increasing sensitivity to the treatment of
sacred objects in profane spaces by institutions and scholars, the exploration
of meditative techniques by psychologists, and the unabated expansion
of Buddhist Studies in academia, a treatise on the subject that makes these
connections has become all the more relevant.
A Tibetan thangka is best considered in the soteriological framework from
which it originated. For Tibetan Buddhists, the cultural proprietors of this
sacred art, “Its existence predominates over the subjectivity of a painter or
a spectator.”92 The painter is not an originator, but a “reproducer of divine
reality.”93 The typical Euro-American rubric for art historical analysis, which
stereotypically emphasizes the artists’ and works’ subjectivity, is therefore
limiting for a study of Tibetan Buddhist depictions of the divine. Rather, the
Vajrayana notion of divine reality according to its texts and prescriptions for
ritual practices, which gave birth to the thangka should serve as the basis for
aesthetic and theoretical analysis. Such an object is only eficacious by virtue
of and within the context of faith in in Vajrayana Buddhist philosophy. Without
exploring these philosophical underpinnings, we cannot even approximate the
49 TibeT Journal
visual encounter of a faithful Tibetan Buddhist with the thangka nor begin to
grasp the instrumental authority of such an artifact in social or spiritual terms.
I have intentionally emphasized the texts associated with these schemes of
imagery (inscriptions and sgrub thabs) as well as those historical sources that
address their origins. As Della Santina conveniently afirms in The Tibetan
Tantric Vision, “ …with Tibetan Buddhist art in general the appearances of
the deities portrayed in images is determined by relevant sacred scriptures.
The number of faces, arms, and legs as well as postures and adornments of
various deities are all prescribed by the sadhanas…”94 The privileged position
I give various Tibetan Buddhists canonical texts with regard to these visual
images is by virtue of this fact and that those sadhanas (Tib. sgrub thabs),
like texts, and commentaries, also act as ritual manuals for Tibetan Buddhist
practitioners that call for engagement with those images. Tibetan Buddhist
texts such as sgrub thabs provide more material to theorize about the sensorial
religious encounter of a devotee with sacred images, but the act of spiritual
engagement with a thangka by a devotee cannot literally be examined like
the painting or associated texts themselves. The material expression, related
religious practices, and substantiating beliefs enable this particular mode of
vision, but cannot be substituted for it.
The insights my inquiry has yielded with regard to the functional aspects
of thangka paintings by way of employing a matrix of Tibetan categories
(especially sku rten, the category by which Tibetan Buddhists differentiate
thangka from sgyu rtsal or “art”) and ritual forms of engagement—that the
traditional Tibetan thangka paintings take the place of the physical body of
Shakyamuni, that their ontological status is essentially one in the same with
the deities they appear to denote, and that those deities can exercise agency
through those “Artistic Emanation” bodies—can be succinctly synthesized:
Thangka paintings have metaphysical potential as sku rten. Such is prescribed
by Tibetan Buddhist doctrine from the time of the Buddha Shakyamuni (per
Geshe Tenzin Sherab and Pema Namdol Thaye’s references to the origins of
sku rten in sutra literature) and elaborated upon in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra.
Moreover, such cannot be contained within iconographic formulas and
requires an interdisciplinary and somewhat discursive approach.
This form of interpretation has potentially strong implications for the
world of Himalayan art theory and museums’ approaches to ethical modes
of display. The perfectly executed system of iconometry that is found in
thangka paintings, for example—which we now know not only mirrors the
perfect qualities of the deities depicted and those which the practitioner hopes
to embody, but provides a dwelling place for those deities—are visible to
all. Since the visual qualities of Tibetan Buddhist images of the divine are
50 TibeT Journal
inextricable from their ritual eficacy (as meditation aids) an important aspect
of their sacredness is made immediately accessible in exhibiting them; “the
secularization of sacred Tibetan objects was part of the process that propelled
them into the Western canon of art…”95 Ipso facto, rendering the exhibition
of sacred Tibetan objects a compromise from the outset. So why attempt to
explain the sacred qualities of a Tibetan Buddhist thangka at all? In the words
of Tsongkhapa, “at this time and in this situation there is greater fault in not
clearing away wrong ideas than there is in distributing translations.”96 What I
hope to have provided is a comprehensive translation of the Tibetan Buddhist
“thangka”, which in the words of Geshe Tenzin Sherab is not simply “art.”
Notes
1. Kelsang Namgyal. “Interview with The Shechen Institute of Traditional Tibetan
Art, Tsering Art School’s Principal.” Personal interview. 5 Aug. 2014.
2. David Paul Jackson and Janice A. Jackson. Tibetan Thangka Painting:
Methods & Materials (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1984), 9-10.
3. Giuseppe Tucci. Tibetan Painted Scrolls. Vol. 1 (Roma: Libreria Dello
Stato, 1949). 271.
4. Robert A. Orsi. Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People
Make and the Scholars Who Study Them (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP,
2005), 167.
5. Tucci, 287.
6. Della Santina Krishna Ghosh. The Tibetan Tantric Vision (New Delhi:
D.K. Printworld, 2003), 251.
7. Catherine M. Bell. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford
UP, 1992), 4.
8. Ibid, 70.
9. Jonathan Landlaw and Andy Weber. Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan
Art in Practice (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1993), 7.
10. Pratapaditya Pal and Hugh Richardson. Art of Tibet: A Catalogue of
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection (Los Angeles, CA:
Museum, 1983), 238.
11. Ibid, 99.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid, 10.
14. Kenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal
Rinpoche. “Teaching on the Medicine Buddha.” (Padmasambhava
Buddhist Center: Buddhist Meditation and Study Center in the Nyingma
Tradition. Ed. Ed Contaldi. N.p., May 2003), 3.
15. Robert Beer. The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols (Boston:
51 TibeT Journal
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
Shambhala, 2003), 206.
Tucci, 287.
The Tibetan expression used here is “ro gcig” which literally translates
as “one taste.” The word taste can better be understood in English as
nature or essence.
The Tibetan word used here is “’gro” which literally translates as
“migrator” or “goer”, but refers in this context (as Tibetan Buddhists
very commonly use it) to the sentient beings migrating through the
realms of samsara.
The attributes of the body of perfect rapture, namely, those of excellent
teacher or ston pa, teaching or bstan pa, retinue or ’gor, place or gnas,
and time or dus.
Thubten Zopa and Ailsa Cameron. Teachings from the Medicine Buddha
Retreat: Land of Medicine Buddha, October-November 2001 (Boston,
MA: Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, 2009), 110.
Ibid, 190.
Ibid, 45.
Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen. Medicine Buddha: The WishFulilling Jewel. Trans. David Molk (“Revised edition” ed. New Mexico:
FPMT, 2005), 7.
Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, and Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, and
Jeffrey Hopkins. Deity Yoga: In Action and Performance Tantra (Ithaca,
NY, USA: Snow Lion Publications, 1987)
Ibid, 118.
Ibid, 19.
Geshe Tenzin Sherab. “Interview with Abbot of Deer Park Buddhist
Center (Madison,WI).” Personal interview. 25 Feb. 2015.
Landlaw and Weber, 83.
L. A. Waddell. “The Indian Buddhist Cult of Avalokita and His Consort
Tara ‘The Saviouress,’ Illustrated from the Remains in Magadha.”
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1894): 64.
Beyer, Stephan. The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Berkeley,
CA: U of California, 1973), 6.
Susan S. Landesman. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (24.1:
2008), 46. [She has her own footnote which says, “10. Emphasis added.
TMK, 502b-2 to503a-4, Hayagriva’s Oral Mantra”]
(though likely the work of someone else later in history)
The difference in appearance between the Amitabha depicted in
Green Tara’s crown and the one that sits atop the palace is that it is
the sambhogakaya representation rather than the nirmanakaya- the top
52 TibeT Journal
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
(ornamented igure) is Amitabha as depicted in the Performance and
Yoga Tantras.
Marylin M. Rhie, Robert A. F. Thurman, and John Bigelow Taylor.
Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet (New York: Tibet
House New York in Association with Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 130.
Steven Kossak, Jane Casey. Singer, and Robert Bruce-Gardner. Sacred
Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet. (New York: Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1998), ___.
Miranda Eberle Shaw. Buddhist Goddesses of India. (Princeton:
Princeton UP, 2006), 328.
In The Origin of the Tara Tantra, the esteemed Tibetan historian
Taranatha’s makes the note that this “Nagarjuna” is the second historical
Nagarjuna, not the 2nd century founder of the Madhyamaka school
of Mahayana Buddhism, but the mahasiddha who lived around the
early-mid sixth century 37 (though some scholars such as Benoytosh
Bhattacharyya claim that he lived around the mid-seventh century).37
Ghosh, 2.
bstan ’dzin chos kyi nyi ma, bsod nams rab ’phel. “seng ldeng nags
kyi sgrol ma’i sgrub thabs.” khams sprul bstan ’dzin chos kyi nyi ma’i
gsung skor dang zhal slob thu bo bsod nams rab ’phel gyi gsung. TBRC.
W1KG12655 (Tashijong, Palampur, H.P.: sungrab nyamso gyunphel
parkhang, 1978), 444.
Zopa and Cameron, 45.
Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, and Jeffrey
Hopkins, 19.
This exempliies the Gelugpa tendency to conlate Cittamani Tara (one
of the twenty-one forms) with Green Tara, who is most often conceived
in the form Khadiravani Tara.
Janet Gyatso. “Image as Presence: The Place of Art in Tibetan Religious
Thinking.” Catalogue of The Newark Museum Tibetan Collection (By
Valrae Reynolds and Amy Heller. Vol. III. Newark: Newark Museum,
1986), 32.
Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, and Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, and
Jeffrey Hopkins, 15.
Jeffrey Hopkins and Kevin Vose. Tantric Techniques (Ithaca, NY: Snow
Lion Publications, 2009), 104.
Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, and Jeffery
Hopkins, 118.
Ibid, 15.
Ibid, 49. (quote from Shrihdhara)
53 TibeT Journal
49. Ibid, 26. (quote from Shrihdhara)
50. Robert E. Fisher. Art of Tibet (London: Thames & Hudson, 1997), 54.
[excerpt of translation by Nebesky-Wojkowitz, source unidentiied]
51. Robert N. Linrothe, Marylin M. Rhie, Jeff Watt, and Carly Busta.
Demonic Divine: Himalayan Art and Beyond (New York: Rubin Museum
of Art, 2004), 28.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid, 30.
54. Alexander Gardner. “Ga Lotsawa Zhonnu Pel.” The Treasury of Lives
(Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Mar. 2013)
55. John C. Huntington, Dina Bangdel, and Robert A. F. Thurman. The Circle
of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art (Chicago: Serindia Publications,
2003), 302.
56. chos grags ye shes.“sgrub thabs rgya mtshor ’jug pa dngos grub rin po
che’i gru chen.” gsung ’bum chos grags ye shes. TBRC W1KG4876 (pe
cin: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009), 249.
57. Detlef Ingo Lauf. Tibetan Sacred Art: The Heritage of Tantra (Berkeley,
CA: Shambhala, 1976), 176.
58. Donald J. LaRocca “The Gonkhang, Temple of The Guardian Deities.”
Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet
(New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006), 47.
59. René Von Nebesky-Wojkowitz. Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult
and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities. (‘S-Gravenhage:
Mouten, 1956), 402.
60. Tucci, 320-323.
61. Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 398.
62. Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 400.
63. Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, and Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho Dalai
Lama XIV. Tantra in Tibet: The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra.
(Trans. Jeffrey Hopkins. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1980), 20.
64. Pema N. Thaye. Concise Tibetan Art Book (Kalimpong: Pema Namdol
Thaye, 1987), 23.
65. Each level of Tantra contains the means for liberation, the level of
practice depends on the attributes of the practitioner. Seeking liberation
through the Sutra Vehichle supposedly takes 60 million lifetimes.
66. Rhie, Thurman, and Taylor, 35.
67. Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, and Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho Dalai
Lama XIV, 137.
68. Ibid, 126.
69. Tulku, Tarthang. Sacred Art of Tibet (Berkeley, CA: Dharma Pub., 1974),
54 TibeT Journal
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
“Introduction to Tibetan Sacred Art.” [pages are not numbered]
Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, and Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, and
Jeffrey Hopkins, 10 and 226.
Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, and Jeffrey
Hopkins, 10.
Ghosh, 111.
John Blofeld. “Kuan Yin and Tara: Embodiments of Wisdom-Compassion
Void.” The Tibet Journal, Autumn IV.3 (1979): 33.
Ghosh, 105.
Tucci, 287.
Edward Conze. “Spurious Parallels to Buddhist Philosophy.” Philosophy
East and West 13.2 (1963): 108.
Tulku, “Introduction to Tibetan Sacred Art.” (book’s pages not
numbered).
Tucci, 287-88.
Tulku, “Introduction to Tibetan Sacred Art.”
bzhad pa’i rdo rje. “seng ldeng ngag sgrol gyi sgrub thabs.” gsung ’bum
bzhad pa’i rdo rje. TBRC W22130 (leh: t. sonam & d.l. tashigang, 19831985), 318.
Tulku, “Introduction.”
Pema Namdol Thaye, 23.
Tucci, 320-323
Tucci, 320-323.
Thaye, 23.
Tucci, 287.
Ibid, 288.
Tulku, “Introduction to Tibetan Sacred Art.”
i.e.: David and Janice Jackson. Tibetan Thangka Painting: Methods
and Materials, 6; Janet Gyatso. “Image as Presence: The Place of Art
in Tibetan Religious Thinking”; Jonathan Landlaw and Andy Weber.
“Introduction.” Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan Art in Practice; Della
Santina Krishna Ghosh. “Tibetan Buddhist Art and Iconography.” The
Tibetan Tantric Vision.
Tulku, “Introduction to Tibetan Sacred Art.”
i.e.; Steven Kossak, Jane Casey. Singer, and Robert Bruce-Gardner.
Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet; Robert N. Linrothe,
Marylin M. Rhie, Jeff Watt, and Carly Busta. Demonic Divine: Himalayan
Art and Beyond; Marylin M. Rhie, Robert A. F. Thurman, and John
Bigelow Taylor. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet;
Pratapaditya Pal and Hugh Richardson. Art of Tibet: A Catalogue of the
55 TibeT Journal
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection;
Joanna Tokarska-Bakir. “Naive Sensualism, Docta Ignorantia. Tibetan
Liberation through the Senses.” Numen 47.1 (2000): 108.
Ibid.
Ghosh, 83.
Clare E. Harris “The Tibet Museum in the West.” The Museum on
the Roof of the World: Art, Politics, and the Representation of Tibet
(Chicago, IL: U of Chicago, 2012), 25.
Blo-bzang-grags-pa, Tsong-kha-pa, and Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho Dalai
Lama XIV, 17.
56 TibeT Journal
Plate I
Chinn, Paul. Thepo Tulku Prays in Front of a Buddhist Shrine. N.d. SF Gate.
Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Olympictorch-symbol-ofoppression-to-Tibetans-3218963.php>.
Plate II
Photos taken (by me) at Sechen Monastery’s Tsering Art School,
Kathmandu.
57 TibeT Journal
Plate III
Thangka of the Eight Medicine Buddhas. 18th Century. Thangka painting.
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI. 65.5.30.
Plate IV
(back side) Thangka of the Eight Medicine Buddhas. 18th Century.
Thangka painting. Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI. 65.5.30.
58 TibeT Journal
Plate V
Thangka of Khadiravani Tara. 19th Century. Thangka painting. Chazen
Museum of Art, Madison, WI. 64.12.5
Plate VI
Thangka of Khadiravani Tara. 19th Century. Thangka painting. Chazen
Museum of Art, Madison, WI. 64.12.5 Mahakala-Face.jpg
59 TibeT Journal
Plate VII
Thangka of Four-Armed Mahakala. 18thth- early 19th Century. Thang-ka
painting. Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI. 65.5.29.
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