Date: 18th century Culture: Tibet Medium: Distemper on cotton Dimensions:Image 61 × 44.5 cm ; Framed 84 × 65.5 cm
Description: Guru Dragpo is the wrathful form of Padmasambhava, the renowned founder of Tibetan Buddhism who established the Nyingma School in the eighth century. The wild figure wears a skull diadem and a tiger-skin apron decorated with severed heads; a flayed elephant skin acts as his shawl. He wields a ritual tool (vajra) above his head and holds a multi-limbed blue scorpion in his lower hand. His corpulent figure is engulfed in a flaming aureole. In the upper register are, from left, the bodhisattvas Manjushri and Shadakshari Lokeshvara, the Buddha Amitabha, and Padmasambhava himself, wearing the yellow cap of his Nyingma School. In the lower register appear other deities in Guru Dragpo’s retinue, including Vajrapani at left and the yaksha Jambhala, god of wealth, at center.
Guru Dragpo, Padmasambhava’s Fierce Emanation
Date: 18th century
Culture: Tibet
Medium: Distemper on cotton
Dimensions: Image 61 × 44.5 cm ; Framed 84 × 65.5 cm
Description:
Guru Dragpo is the wrathful form of Padmasambhava, the renowned founder of Tibetan Buddhism who established the Nyingma School in the eighth century. The wild figure wears a skull diadem and a tiger-skin apron decorated with severed heads; a flayed elephant skin acts as his shawl. He wields a ritual tool (vajra) above his head and holds a multi-limbed blue scorpion in his lower hand. His corpulent figure is engulfed in a flaming aureole. In the upper register are, from left, the bodhisattvas Manjushri and Shadakshari Lokeshvara, the Buddha Amitabha, and Padmasambhava himself, wearing the yellow cap of his Nyingma School. In the lower register appear other deities in Guru Dragpo’s retinue, including Vajrapani at left and the yaksha Jambhala, god of wealth, at center.
Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art