Mandala of black and white Mahākālas. Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter.

A maṇḍala with the Buddhist deity Mahākāla in the centre: he is black and four handed, and holds a chopper in the right hand and a skull bowl in the left. With his right foot he is treading on a yellow human being, while his legs are in dancing attitude. He is surrounded by eight figures very similar to himself. Their colours alternate between grey and yellow. They seem to represent black and white Mahākālas. All of them are four-handed. Apart from choppers and skull bowls they are holding double drums and clubs. They are wearing Bodhisattva ornaments. This inner part of the thanka resembles a 15th-century Nairātmā maṇḍala (reproduced by P. Pal, Tibetan paintings 1984, pl. 209) which has a grey Nairātmā in the centre and four yellow and four grey Nairātmās dancing round her in a circle. Mahākāla is rare in a dancing attitude but his body is much broader and more robust and less graceful than that of Nairātmā. Also Nairātmā is wearing Dharmapāla ornaments. The double drum and the club are also not found in the iconography of Nairātmā

The maṇḍala palace has four gates. Outside the gates is a circle containing eight deities, each of whom presides over a cemetery. On the top right hand side is a brown Lion Face goddess. She is attended by green, brown and yellow beings wearing crowns and Bodhisattva ornaments. The goddess is Seṅ-ge gDoṅ-ma (Lion Face): she is sitting in meditation posture holding a skull bowl. In the same way, each of the eight cemeteries has one presiding deity, one mahāsiddha (great master), one ḍākinī (maid servant), one stūpa (tumulus), some human worshippers and some animals

The deity in the next cemetery moving clockwise is two-armed and dark blue, sitting in meditation posture on a human being. The right hand holds a vajra (thunderbolt). Amongst his yellow, brown and green attendants is a makara (sea monster)

The deity presiding over the third cemetery, on the utmost right, is grey or light blue and is probably Yama (Tibetan gŚin-rje), sitting in meditation posture and holding a club in his right hand and a noose in his left. He is mounted on a pink rhinoceros. He is attended by a white nāga (snake spirit) whose name is Padma (see Giuseppe Tucci, Indo-Tibetica, III, part 2, 1936, p. 173 ff.: the prototype of the eight cemeteries is the same but there are certain variations). There is a monk in trance, a pink bird holding a snake in his bill, and a yellow-clad worshipper

The deity presiding over the fourth cemetery is red. He is Hutāśana, the Lord of the Hearth (Tibetan Byin-za). He is sitting in meditation posture on a blue horse, holding a sword and a club to which three heads are attached

The deity presiding over the fifth cemetery is also red, with a blue halo, sitting on a white horse and holding a vajra in his right hand. He is attended by a white dog. The ḍākinī is probably Vajrayoginī

The deity presiding over the sixth cemetery is called Kili-Kilar-sgrogs, and is white and sitting in meditation posture on a brown antelope. There is also a four-armed Avalokiteśvara holding a rosary in the upper right hand. Two yellow worshippers hold a flower and a trident respectively. One yellow attendant holds a bow and arrow. There is a dark grey worshipper, a white bird and a grey cow

The deity presiding over the seventh cemetery is yellow and seated in meditation posture on a green animal. Then there is a creature, half man and half bird, attended by a white deity stepping to his left, holding a double drum and a noose. There is a conch shell above the head of a yellow worshipper

The deity presiding over the last cemetery is green, sitting in meditation posture on a brown deer and holding in the right hand a sceptre with two points. Among the attendants is a dark grey boar

[Tibet]

1 painting : distemper on linen ; distemper 29 x 29 cm

Marianne Winder, Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and catalogue of thankas, banners and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London 1989, p. 88-89, thankas banners and paintings no. 26

Wellcome Collection 47096i