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This black ground painting evokes the macabre setting in which Yama Dharmaraja resides: a corpse-strewn funereal ground. Around him are four wrathful figures from his entourage, each haloed by flames, dancing wildly on a body and clutching a gore-laden skull cup. In the foreground, an offering of organs associated with the five senses brims from a skull bowl. Sitting in a small eddy of tranquility above this visual torrent is Bodhisattva Manjushri, whose manifestation as the terrifying Yama Dharmaraja is the means for defeating death.
Yama Dharmaraja with Consort Yami
OriginTibet
Date18th century
Dimensions31 1/2 x 23 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. (80 x 59.1 x 5.7 cm)
MediumPigment on cloth
Classification(s)
Credit LineRubin Museum of Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin
Object numberC2006.66.409
Himalayan Art Resources Number855
DescriptionYama Dharmaraja is one of several terrifying forms Bodhisattva Manjushri assumed to defeat the Lord of Death. He is black or dark blue in color, fiercely animated, and wields a skull-headed cudgel and a coiled lasso. Wearing a crown of skulls and a garland of freshly severed heads, he is surrounded by flames and stands astride a buffalo and human corpse. This black ground painting evokes the macabre setting in which Yama Dharmaraja resides: a corpse-strewn funereal ground. Around him are four wrathful figures from his entourage, each haloed by flames, dancing wildly on a body and clutching a gore-laden skull cup. In the foreground, an offering of organs associated with the five senses brims from a skull bowl. Sitting in a small eddy of tranquility above this visual torrent is Bodhisattva Manjushri, whose manifestation as the terrifying Yama Dharmaraja is the means for defeating death.
Not on view
19th century
18th - 19th century
ca. 19th century
19th century
15th century
15th century
19th century
19th century
14th century
20th century