Tibetan Art Exhibit
While taking Tibetan Buddhism, it was a challenge for
me to find an interest for some of topics covered in class due to me never
developing religious beliefs as a child. There were concepts that were
difficult for me to grasp since my parents never pushed there religion on me,
and I never took the time or effort to broaden my view on religion since I
found it extremely complicated. I found myself trying to relate the “real
world” to a lot of what were learned in class, which explains why I gave a more
modern social approach to my Wheel of Life and Mandala projects. Even though it
was hard for me find interest in some of the topics we covered in lecture, I found
the lecture where we viewed art containing wrathful deities to be one that made
me want to do research and learn more about these interesting beings.
This is the reason why the theme of my Tibetan
Buddhism Art Exhibit will be based off of Eight Dharmapalas. These wrathful
deities or wrathful protectors peaked my interest because it reminded me of the metaphor
“don’t judge a book by its cover”. When
I saw images of wrathful deities for the first time, I thought to myself “
these figures must be demons or evil spirits” and that would be what most
people would think if they never took this course or some sort of Buddhism
class. Kumar (2001) states, “An enigmatic aspect of Buddhist iconography
is the presence of wrathful, terrifying forms. Though these awesome,
hair-raising images seem contradictory to Buddhist ideals, they are not personifications
of evil or demonic forces. Rather they symbolize the violence that is a
fundamental reality of the cosmos in general, and of the human mind in
particular. In addition to destroying the passions of the mind, the purpose of
gods is to protect the faithful. The wrathful deities, who symbolize the
tremendous effort it takes to vanquish evil, especially perform this function”. The wrathful, vengeful, and overall unattractive appearance of these
deities would never make you think they were actually bodhisattvas that
protected Buddhists and the Dharma. These deities are represented in art to be
hideous and frightful in order to instill fear in all evil forces.
The collection of artwork I chose to display on my Tibetan Buddhism Art
Exhibit consists of: Mahkala, Yama, Yamantaka, Hayagriva, Vaisravana, Palden
Lhamo, Tshangspa Dkarpo, and Begtse. The Eight Dharmapalas categorized under
wrathful deities.
The first image I have displayed is
an artwork depicting Yama, The God of Death. Before Yama was a wrathful
protector, He was a holy man who was on the path to enlightenment. While
meditating, his path to enlightenment was interrupted by two robbers who came
into the cave the holy man meditated in to cut off the head of a bull they had
stolen. Realizing the holy man had witnessed their act of crime, the robbers
cut off his head also. The holy man instantly transformed into Yama and put on
the head of the robbers stolen bull. He than killed the two robbers and than
drank from blood filled cups made from the skulls of the two rubbers. He than
threatened to destroy all of Tibet but was defeated by Yamantaka, the wrathful
form of Manjushri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom. After defeating Yama, Yamantaka
turned him into a protector (O’Bein). In the image I chose of Yama, he is shown
in blue with the head of a bull. He holds a curved knife in his right hand and
a blood filled skull in his left. He wears jewelry made with gold, bone, and
severed heads. Yama is completely surrounded by flames, which represents the
burning of ignorance and he stands on top of a lotus flower, which represents
purity and enlightenment.
My second picture is of Mahakala,
the wrathful form of Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion. Kumar (2001)
states, “The reason for the special powers and
effectiveness of Mahakala goes back to Avalokiteshvara’s vow to remain in the
mortal world and not reach Buddhahood until all sentient beings were
enlightened. After helping hundreds of thousands of people for countless years
to reach enlightenment, Avalokiteshvara saw no decrease in suffering, but
rather an increase in defilements. He then became discouraged. As soon as he
had that thought, his head immediately split into a thousand pieces”. The
pieces are than put together by
Amitabha, and Mahkala was formed as one of Avalokiteshvara’s eleven
faces. The image I chose of Mahakala shows him wearing a crown of five skulls,
each representing negative aspects of human nature and transformation to
positive. Ignorance is transformed into reality, pride into sameness,
attachment into discernment, jealously into accomplishment, and anger into
wisdom. He also has six arms, each symbolizing completion of six perfections,
which are generosity, morality, peace, vigor, meditation, and wisdom. He is
shown wearing jewelry made from skulls and is surrounded by flames.
My third image depicts Yamantaka,
the wrathful form of Manjushri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom. Manjushri transformed
himself into the wrathful form of Yamantaka to defeat Yama. Manjushri adopted
the form of Yama and magnified it by adding eight faces, and multiple arms and
legs to show that he is stronger than The God of Death. In the image I chose of
Yamantaka, we can see his multiple heads, arms, and legs. Each of his hands wields
a deadly weapon used to fend off evil forces. His front right hand holds onto a
vajra, the vajra “ symbolizes the indestructible power of the deity’s
vajra-weath, which is capable of destroying all negativities and illusions”
(Beer, pg.88).
My fourth illustration shows Vaisravana, The God of Wealth.
Vaisravana is an adaption of the Hindu’s Kubera, and is the son of the sage
Visrava. “He is said to have performed
austerities for a thousand years, in reward for which Brahma, the Creator, gave
him immortality and made him god of wealth, guardian of all the treasures of
the earth, which he was to give out to whom they were destined” (Kumar). He
represents prosperity, giving people the freedom to pursue spiritual goals. In this
image, we can see his clothing is covered with jewelry representing his wealth.
He is also shown riding a snow lion, a vehicle of many deities.
My fifth artwork is of Palden Lhamo,
The Goddess. Palden Lhamo is the only female of the Eight Dharmapalas’s and
protector of Buddhist government. She was originally married to the evil king
of Lanka and bore a son. However, she killed her son and ran away after failing
to change the king’s evil ways. In the
image of Palden Lhamo, she is shown with a trident in her right hand
representing the destruction of the three poisons. We can see the head and
flesh of her slain son wrapped around the horse, the horse also has an eye on
its rear, this eye was formed after the king shot a poison arrow at her while
she was escaping with her slain son. The king hit the horse instead but she was
able to heal the horse and turned the wound into an eye.
The sixth picture depicts Hayagriva, The Horse Necked One. Nayagriva is another wrathful form of Avalokiteshvara and is said to cure illness and skin disease. He wears a horse head and is known to neigh loudly. “The sound is said to pierce all false appearances of substantiality, revealing the shining reality of freedom” (Kumar) His neigh is also used to frighten off demonic forces. In the image of Hayagriva, he is depicted in a simplistic way. He has one face, two arms and two legs. His warrior stance shows his aggressiveness with a sword in his left hand, raised and ready to strike.
The sixth picture depicts Hayagriva, The Horse Necked One. Nayagriva is another wrathful form of Avalokiteshvara and is said to cure illness and skin disease. He wears a horse head and is known to neigh loudly. “The sound is said to pierce all false appearances of substantiality, revealing the shining reality of freedom” (Kumar) His neigh is also used to frighten off demonic forces. In the image of Hayagriva, he is depicted in a simplistic way. He has one face, two arms and two legs. His warrior stance shows his aggressiveness with a sword in his left hand, raised and ready to strike.
The seventh image shows Tshangspa Dkarpo.
Legend tells us of how the guardians of heaven killed him after he tried to steal god’s wish-fulfilling jewel. After
death, he rode around on his horse and killed all males, and had sex with all
females he came into contact with. One day, he awoken the goddess Ekazati and
she struck him in the thigh, crippling him and transforming him into a
protector. He is known as a warrior god and is shown wielding a sword while riding
a horse above the clouds.
The eighth and final picture shows Begtse, The God of
War. Begtse confronted the Dalai Lama’s while the Dalai Lama is on a mission to
convert Mongols to Buddhism. Begtse realized the superiority of the Dharma
after witnessing the transformation of the Dalai Lama into Avalokiteshvara.
This caused Begtse to convert to Buddhism and he became eighth and final
protector. He is depicted as a Tibetan warrior, he is typically shown holding
in his left hand, the enemy’s heart, and a bow and arrow in his elbow. His
right hand holds a sword and he is also shown covered with armour.
