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The images in this illuminated manuscript depict these visions. Peaceful and wrathful (animal-headed) deities as well as other bardo experiences are depicted on one side, illustrating the ritual as described in the text.
Other pages depict the goddesses that represent the transformation of the elements into subtle energies, the eight forms of divine wisdom into which the eight objects of knowledge must be transformed, and the deities of the four gates, who represent the four immeasurable states of mind.
Each page instructs the practitioner to harness the wisdom and enlightened activity of the depicted deities when traversing the disorienting liminal state of the bardo.
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for Text and Illuminations of the Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the Intermediate State (Bardo)
Text and Illuminations of the Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the Intermediate State (Bardo)
OriginTibet
Dateca. 15th century
Dimensions2 5/8 × 12 1/8 in. (individual page dimensions)
MediumPigments on cloth
Classification(s)
Credit LineRubin Museum of Art, Gift of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
Object numberF1998.16.5
Himalayan Art Resources Number778
Project Himalayan Arthttps://projecthimalayanart.rubinmuseum.org/essays/lukhang-murals/
DescriptionThis illuminated manuscript contains the instructions that a lama gives to practitioners, teaching them how to navigate the intermediate state between death and rebirth known as the bardo. The lama empowers the deceased to gain mastery over the visions they experience in the bardo, so that they can take the path leading to liberation rather than being led astray and remaining trapped in the cycle of death and rebirth.The images in this illuminated manuscript depict these visions. Peaceful and wrathful (animal-headed) deities as well as other bardo experiences are depicted on one side, illustrating the ritual as described in the text.
Other pages depict the goddesses that represent the transformation of the elements into subtle energies, the eight forms of divine wisdom into which the eight objects of knowledge must be transformed, and the deities of the four gates, who represent the four immeasurable states of mind.
Each page instructs the practitioner to harness the wisdom and enlightened activity of the depicted deities when traversing the disorienting liminal state of the bardo.
Not on view
18th century
early 20th century
dated by inscription, 1871
19th century
mid-18th century
18th century
15th century
ca. 1415-1435
mid-19th century
18th-19th century
Related Object/Related Object
Manuscript/Folios in Manuscript
