Attributes of Beg-tse in a "rgyan tshogs" banner. Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter.

The banner honours the Mongolian protector Beg-tse ('hidden shirt of chain mail'), who has been propitiated in Tibet since the late sixteenth century. Beg-tse is considered to be a war god of either the hostile gnod-sbyin or dgra-lha class

At the top are six skull bowls, symbolizing the six sacramental offerings. Below them are the copper helmet, bone necklace and copper cuirass which form the armour of Beg-tse as god of war, and flanking them are his hand-implements: left, a flaming copper sword, (centre?) the heart of a hostile foe, and, right, a lance with banner attached. The sword surmounts a scorpion, symbol of negativity, which it severs. Left, three persons, a Tibetan man and woman and an Indian man in turban and breeches, bear gifts to the Protector: a pair of cymbals, an ordinary jewel and a wishing jewel. Above are four black falcons, holding human viscera in their beaks, and the double shin-bone trumpet (left) and two-sided skull-drum (right), which represent the burial-ground

At the bottom is an offering cake (gtor ma) surrounded by flames. It is garnished with skulls and surmounted by the emblem of sun and moon and by a helmet with a feathered arrow in it. Below, the fiery offering cake is flanked by a bow and arrow (right) and by another lance with a flag attached to it (left)

In the lower half are various offerings: king's and queen's earrings, conch, mirror, wheel, elephant's tusks, rhinoceros horn, a stick of coral, crossed incense sticks, two small triangular gtor mas and a gtor ma in the shape of four continents, and a vase containing a green fluid (nectar?). Animals include the saddled white elephant, goat, wolf and two horses, of which the unsaddled one perhaps represents the one trodden on by Begtse. With his other foot he traditionally treads on a human being, shown as the naked person crouching at the bottom on the left side

[Tibet]

1 painting : distemper on linen ; distemper 62 x 48 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. 99, thankas banners and paintings no. 41

Gyurme Dorje, 'A rare series of Tibetan banners', in N. Allan (ed.), Pearls of the Orient: Asian treasures of the Wellcome Library, London 2003, pp. 161-177 (p. 168 and fig. 6)

Wellcome Collection 47070i