In this mandala Buddha Shakyamuni is shown seated in vajraparyankasana on six-ornament throne of enlightenment, in the center in clouds. His right hand is in bhumisparsha-mudra which reminds the event of Shakyamuni’s enlightenment at Bodhgaya and his victory over Mara. It is said that mere sight of this gesture of the Buddha guarantees the believer that it will ward of all evil. Buddha’s left hand is held in meditation position and holding a pindapatra, the attribute of all Theravada Buddhist monks who pass by houses in the morning to beg for food. The monks are to accept the food that is given them. Around noon, all the monks eat the food together as the only meal of the day.
The Buddha has an ornate nimbus of animals, and Garuda topping them, which indicates that he has perfected the six-paramitas (transcendences). These six paramitas are represented by six animals – the Garuda at the top is the first paramita of charity (dana) . The two young nagas stand for moral excellence (Shila-paramita) . The two makara is symbol of forbearance (kshanti-paramita) . The two dwarfs on goats represent endurance (virya-paramita) . The two elephants stand for meditation (dhyana-paramita) . The two lions on elephants are the highest perfection of wisdom (prajna-paramita) . A standing Buddha with two companion are shown above the Garuda, symbolizing supremacy of Dharma.
The Buddha has an oval face and his figure depicts some of the thirty-two characteristic marks (lakshanas) of a Buddha, such as broad shoulders, long arms, long earlobes, urna between the eyebrows, ushnisha (protuberance on the skull) and so on. There is a jewel on the top of his head. He is draped in monastic garments, covering both the shoulders with bare breast. His two chief disciples, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, flank him.
The upper corners inside the square are filled with the figures of Dharma protectors. The walls of square are decorated in multi-colors with stylized designs. There are four gateways in the square in each four cardinal directions. Over the gates are houses in which reside the protector deities. Two Siddhas are seated on either side of each gate outside the walls. The square is surrounded with three circles. The outer circle is of the charnel ground, symbolizing enlightenment’s power to transform death into eternal life. Then there is a circle of fire fence, which is florally rendered here, protecting the inner residence or by crossing this circle, sadhaka’s ego and illusion will burn away. Thereafter is the circle of lotus petals, from here the spiritual realm begins and one enters the mandala. Apart from this, four more mandalas are depicted outside the each corners of the square of central mandala, depicting figures of Buddha. The mandalas are surrounded with the scenes from the life of Shakyamuni Buddha. The scenes are depicted along with great adepts, siddhas and protector deities. Although the events are not depicted in consecutive order, however the scenes depicted here are as follows:
1. Before the Buddha was born into this world as Shakyamuni Buddha, he was a Bodhisattva in the Tushita heaven, and his name there was Shvetaketu. He vowed to manifest himself in the sentient world and relieve people from their sufferings. Here Buddha is shown making this vow surrounded by other celestial beings. This scene is depicted on the top center above the main circle.
2. Upper left corner outside circle depicts the scene of Mahamaya’s Dream. According to tradition when the time came for Shakyamuni to manifest himself on earth, He descended to earth in the form of a White Elephant. Queen Mahamaya of Kapilavastu dreamed of a White Elephant that flew through the air in clouds and touch her right side with its trunk. Subsequently she became pregnant. Below this, a Buddha is shown seated in the courtyard of a palace and two Siddhas are seated below this scene in the middle ground. The scene of nativity is depicted below this.
3. When Mahamaya’s time was approaching she took a trip to parental home to have the baby there with her mother. When she reached the park of Lumbini and grabs hold of shala tree and bends a branch down, her son was born from her right side in standing position. A monument at the birthplace of the Buddha, erected by emperor Ashoka after 375 years of the event, still stands witness to his historical character. Brahma and Indra were present at the birth. This motif is common in older Indian art. If a young woman grasps a tree branch this way, it is said that the tree will burst into bloom. Taking this image one level further, it means that she herself is bursting into bloom, which indicates fertility.
4. The newborn child walked seven steps towards each point of the compass, exclaiming – “this is my last incarnation.” The child was brought to Kapilvastu and named Siddhartha. Queen Mahamaya died seven days after giving the birth. Siddhartha’s aunt foster-mother Prajapati Gautami brought him up. An old sage named Asita visited king Suddhodana’s palace and expressed a desire to see the newborn child. On seeing the marks of greatness on its delicate limbs, Sage Asita prophesied to king Suddhodana that the Little Siddhartha was destined to be either a universal monarch or a Buddha. Fearing this king Suddhodana brought him up isolated in the luxuries of the palace and best education was imparted to him. The young Siddhartha confounds his teachers by exceptional knowledge for his age. But the Prince had little interest in glamour or entertainment. Below the scene of nativity, Prince Siddhartha is shown in a palace as he is holding the royal court. One of the most significant episode of his youth occurred during the contest for winning the hand of princess Yasodhara. An elephant was place inside the city gate to test, which was strongest among the participants. Devadatta killed the animal with one hand. Siddhartha, seeing the mindless killing, pick up the animal lightly and tossed it over the city wall, where it came to life again. At the tournament, the crown price excelled in everything, including horse riding, and archery. Siddhartha was chosen as the groom. This scene is depicted below the scene of scene of nativity on the right side.
5. After marriage with Yasodhara, Siddhartha spent some time in the palace, but marriage life also did not change his mood. When he was twenty-nine years old Yasodhara had a son, named Rahula. After a time prince had a strong desire to see the other places surrounding the palace. On his three trips he encountered suffering in the form of an old man, a sick man, and a corpse. On his fourth trip he saw an upright ascetic, dressed in orange clothes walking majestically along the road and carrying a bowl, looking very calm and peaceful. The charioteer told him that this was a person who renounced the world with all its luxuries and was looking for truth and peace, that this person had no desire or anger, and that he lived by begging for his food. These sights made him ponder over the miseries of existence and also on a way of escaping from them. Thereafter after Siddhartha decided to leave the worldly life and he secretly left his royal palace and finally went to the forest, where he removed his royal garments and jewelry and cut off his long princely hair and wrapped himself in a simple monk’s robe. Shakyamuni subsequently sat under a tree and meditated as a hermit for six years. He had five mendicant companions in the forest. He seeks one teacher after another. He imbibed all that they had to teach him, but as his thirst for truth, remained unquenched he moved on and ultimately reached a picturesque land, near modern Bodhgaya, which was surrounded by luxuriant woods through which ran a gentle stream with banks of silver sand. Siddhartha practiced rigid austerities and resorted to different kinds of self-torture. For six years he lived in this manner and reduced to a skeleton. Yet real knowledge eluded him. At the end of six years he realized that physical torture was not the way to achieve enlightenment and decided to partake of food again. When on that day he was offered a bowl of milk rice (kheer) by Sujata, a rich merchant’s daughter, devoted to him, he accepted it. At the same time he felt that in the course of that day he would become a Buddha. He spent the midday in a grove of sala trees on the bank of the Niranjana. When dusk fell he proceeded towards the Bodhi tree. On the way he met a grass cutter who gave him a bundle of soft grass. Spreading the grass at the foot of the Bodhi tree he sat in meditation and resolved thus, “skin sinew and bone may dry up as it will; my flesh and blood may dry in my body; but without attaining complete enlightenment shall I not leave this seat.” This scene is depicted on the right side of the mandala outside the circle.
6. During his seven weeks of pondering and meditation under the Bodhi tree. Mara tried to prevent Siddhartha from coming to the ultimate understanding, but in vain. At this, the solitary Siddhartha called the earth goddess to be his witness. The earth opened and the goddess confirmed that he had remained steadfast. Mara then back down and slunk away. This scene is depicted at foreground just below the circle of central mandala.
7. It is said that after forty-nine days of thinking and meditating, Shakyamuni received insight into both his former and present lives. He came to conclusion that extreme in life lead to nothing and that suffering must be eliminated. When he reached this insight, he attained Bodhi or enlightenment. The central image of the Buddha of the main mandala represents this event.
8. The Buddha spent forty-five years in wandering and teaching in northern India. He had many followers, irrespective of birth or caste, and established monasteries and centers for the Sangha. When Master was at Pava, Chuna or Chunda, a blacksmith of town, invited him to a meal of rice, cakes and sukaramaddava. There is no agreement among scholars about the meaning of the last word. It may be either a boar’s tender flesh or some kind of edible herb. Whatever it might have been, it was difficult to digest and the Buddha was taken ill with dysentery. His illness, however, did not prevent him from going on to Kushinagar along with his disciples. Shakyamuni entered his Mahaparinirvana at the age of eighty in 483 B.C. in Kushinagar.
When the Buddha reached Kushinagar he asked Ananda, his personal attendant, to spread a cloth on ground between two sala trees. He lay down like a lion and gave his last admonitions to his disciple and lay folk, who had assembled to have a last glimpse of him. The following were his last words: “now, monks, I have nothing more to tell you but that is composed is liable to decay! ‘Be a lamp for yourself, be a refugee for yourself, seek no refuge outside yourself’. This scene is depicted on the right side below the mandala. Here we see four persons are carrying the body of Shakyamuni, and then we see the funeral pyre of Buddha along with a stupa surrounded with Buddhist monks. Which symbolizes the Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha.
9. It is said that when the Buddha was forty-one years old, he saw that the divine beings of the Tushita heaven had potential to be trained in virtues, and that his mother queen Mahamaya had reborn amongst them. Leaving Maudgalyayana as his representative on earth, he journeyed to that realm and decided to spend the annual rains retreat there in order to teach the Abhidharma to his mother. After three months period there, he descended to earth. This scène is depicted on the upper right corner just outside the circle.
Moreover this thangka has a border of auspicious symbols and the figures of dragon. Then two panels are depicted, the upper one depicts, lamas along with companions and Buddha, while lower panel depicts wrathful protectors, from the left are Yama, blue colored Heruka, a Mongolian Lama, Dharmaraja Yama with Yami, blue colored wrathful deity, and a tiger mounted deity. Apart from these, there are two vertical panels on the each side of the mandala inside the dragon border, filled with figures of deities in Yab Yum, Buddha and auspicious symbols. The brocade of the thangka is woven with stylized lotus and good luck symbols.
This description is by Dr. Shailendra K. Verma, whose Doctorate thesis is on “Emergence and Evolution of the Buddha Image (From its inception to 8th century A.D.)”.
Click Here to View the Thangka Painting along with its Brocade
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist