Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/24

IV. The Great Maṇḍala of the Peaceful Deities .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .

facing p. 118

This and the companion illustration, number V, following, are photographic reproductions (about one-fourth of the original size) of two paintings in colour, on heavy cotton cloth, made in the chief monastery of Gyantse, Tibet, on the instructions of Major W. L. Campbell, to illustrate our Bardo Thödol translation (see Preface, p. xi). The colours, emblems, and orientations, as in the two manuscript illuminations described above, are in accord with the strict conventions of the religious art of Tibet. The correlations, too, between the text and the deities depicted, as brought out in the description of the two manuscript illuminations, also apply to these two more elaborate paintings.

Innermost circle (representing the Centre of the orientation): at the centre, Vairochana (white) and shakti, on lion throne (cf. pp. 105–6); at the top, Samanta-Bhadra (blue) and shakti; in subordinate circle on the left, Chenrazee (above), Mañjushrī (below, on left), Vajra-Pāni (below, on right); in subordinate circle on the right, Tsoṅ Khapa, a famous Tibetan guru (above), and his two chief shiṣḥyas (or disciples), Gendundub (below, on left), and Gyltshabje (below, on right).

Lower circle (East): at the centre, Vajra-Sattva (blue), the reflex of Akṣḥobhya, and shakti, on elephant throne; Pushpā (above); Lāsyā (below); and Bodhisattvas (on left and right). Cf. pp. 108–9.

Left circle (South): at the centre, Ratna-Sambhava (yellow) and shakti, on horse throne; Dhūpa (above); Mālā (below); and Bodhisattvas (on left and right). Cf. pp. 110–11.

Upper circle (West): at the centre, Amitābha (red) and shakti, on peacock throne; Āloka (above); Gīta (below); and Bodhisattvas (on left and right). Cf. p. 113.

Right circle (North): at the centre, Amogha-Siddhi (green) and shakti, on harpy throne; Naivedya (above); Gandha (below); and Bodhisattvas (on left and right). Cf. pp. 115–6.

Occupying the four corners of the great circle are the four chief Door-Keepers (cf. p. 120) of the Maṇḍala, each pair on a fire-enhaloed lotus throne: upper left, Yamāntaka (yellow) and shakti, the Door-Keepers of the South; upper right, Hayagrīva (red) and shahti, the Door-Keepers of the West; lower right, Amṛitā-Dhāra (white) and shakti, the Door-Keepers of the North; lower left, Vijaya (green) and shakti, the Door-Keepers of the East. At the bottom, in the centre, Padma Sambhava, the Great Human Guru of the Bardo Thödol Doctrine, in royal robes and pandit head-dress, holding a skull filled with blood, symbolical of renunciation of life, in his left hand, and a dorje, symbolical of mastery over life, in his right. At his feet lie