Many religions believe in a heavenly paradise, free from the pain and suffering of life on earth. Throughout history, artists have imagined hidden higher realms, giving us a glimpse of what it might be like to reach our salvation.
Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, can enjoy a pantheon of jewel-colored gods and deities in rare Tibetan Buddhist art. Its “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet” exhibition explores the secretive world of Himalayan Buddhist sacred art through some 100 paintings, sculptures, and ritual objects, including textiles, costumes, weapons, and musical instruments. Kurt Behrendt, the museum’s associate curator of South Asian art, curated the exhibition.Most of the exhibits date from the 11th century to the 15th century and were made for private devotion—not public display.
“Vajra” (“thunderbolt” or “diamond”) refers to the indestructible divine self. This divine self has been marred by the ego and earthly pursuits. Vajrayana therefore refers to the spiritual cultivation of our innate, divine self.
For Tibetan Buddhists, these artworks act as gateways to the Vajrayana Buddhist teachings on the path to their salvation.
The Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism
Throughout history, there’s been more than one “Buddha,” the Sanskrit term for an awakened or enlightened one. The most famous is the founder of Buddhism: Gautama Buddha also known as Shakyamuni Buddha, who’s often referred to as the historical Buddha.
Shakyamuni Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha Gautama (563 B.C.–483 B.C.) in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal. Renouncing his royal title and material wealth, Gautama became a wandering ascetic who, after meditating under a Bodhi tree, eventually gained nirvana. The Buddhist attainment status of nirvana extinguishes the flames of desire, hatred, and ignorance, and severs the endless cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death (reincarnation). For the rest of his life, he wandered across India imparting his dharma (Buddhist teachings).In the first half of the 7th century, Hinayana Buddhism came from India to Tibet. (Hinayana is the “Small Vehicle” path to salvation.) According to “A World History of Art,” Hinayana Buddhism saw Shakyamuni Buddha as a mortal and his teachings as a philosophy for self-salvation, whereas the later Mahayana (“Great Vehicle”) Buddhist path to salvation viewed Shakyamuni Buddha as a god.
According to Vajrayana Buddhism, when Padmasambhava brought the teachings to Tibet, he purged the land of malignant forces, including demons. Some of those demons’ souls were saved when they converted to Buddhism and became its protectors.
Tibetan Buddhist Art Tradition
In the early art of Hinayana Buddhism, the Buddha himself is not depicted but is instead represented as a wheel symbolizing his first teachings, “Dharmachakra” (“Wheel of the Law”). These teachings were said to have illuminated the world and all sentient beings. The wheel also symbolizes the eternal cycle of reincarnation.The figure of Buddha appeared in Mahayana Buddhist art. According to “A World History of Art”: “From a transcendental viewpoint, the historical Buddha [Shakyamuni] came to be seen as an illusion in an illusory world; this paradoxically permitted him to be represented by images, for all images are illusory too. At a lower intellectual level the Mahayana opened the door to the worship of a Buddhist pantheon of deities visualized anthropomorphically.”
Tibetan Buddhist artists, guided by monks, painted true to Buddhist iconography. “Divinities were depicted according to definite rules found in manuals called ‘Sadhanas’ (Invocations), which specify the appearance of each divinity, his attributes, colours, garments, ornaments, posture, and attendants, while other handbooks give the measurements and proportions to be observed,” according to “The Oxford Companion to Art.”
It also states that Tibetan Buddhist artists “had to be physically, morally, and ritually pure.” They were, after all, depicting divine beings: Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and luohans (the ascetic saints who were Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciples). Buddhists who attain Buddhahood fruition status (the rank of Buddha) free themselves from reincarnation, the constant cycle of rebirth and suffering that Buddhists call “samsara.” Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings graced with great compassion, who have postponed their own salvation until all sentient beings have been saved. A bodhisattva vows to attain enlightenment only in order to help others—a selfless act called “bodhicitta.”
Himalayan Buddhist Artistry
Exhibition visitors can see a myriad of sacred Buddhist artworks and objects from the Himalayan region that show the rich array of spiritual and artistic influences on Tibetan Buddhist art. Most of the works date from after the 11th century.
Tibetan Buddhist artists developed distinct regional styles influenced by neighboring countries: Art created in western Tibet had a Nepalese and South Indian flair, and art in the north and east had some Chinese art style.
On display is an example of a 7th-century to early 8th-century sandstone sculpture of the Bodhisattva Vajrapani, the “thunderbolt bearer,” Shakyamuni Buddha’s protector and guide. In Tibetan Buddhism, vajra (thunderbolt) isn’t literal; it refers to the pure consciousness leading to enlightenment. Vajrapani raises a vajra scepter to the heavens, symbolizing this spiritual awakening. He rests his other hand on a small being, a personification of anger. One of Vajrapani’s powers is to help adherents ascend beyond hatred and similar emotions, which thwart enlightenment.
Some of these artworks feature wrathful protector deities called “Herukas,” such as Mahakala—a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Herukas appear demonic, yet their sole purpose is to serve and save sentient beings.
East Indian artisans sculpted the black stone Mahakala during the Pala Dynasty, which lasted from the 8th to the 12th century. A flaming mandorla (an ellipse of divine light emanating from a holy being) surrounds the four-armed deity as he sits in a royal pose, with one leg hanging down. His “third eye,” at the center of his forehead, indicates his enlightenment level that enables him to see otherworldly realms. He wears a skull diadem and brandishes a sword above his head. In his other hands he holds a “khatvanga” (ritual scepter) and a skull cup. On the pedestal, two devout donors prostrate themselves above an inscription.
In “Mahakala, Protector of the Tent” the fierce deity holds a crescent-shaped ritual flaying knife called a “kartika” with a vajra (thunderbolt) handle. Similar to the black stone sculpture, he wears a crown of skulls and is enclosed in a flaming mandorla, but the latter motif is painted in Nepalese style. Figures on the edge of the painting represent Mahakala’s lineage.
Mysterious Mandalas
According to the exhibition catalog, the mandala teaching runs “clockwise from the periphery toward the center.” Across the top of the mandala, an artisan depicts a lineage of monks dating back to the Indian master (mahasiddha) that the teaching relates to. Along the bottom, deities protect the space. The main deity sits in the center, surrounded by divine figures; this group is within a square palace with four gates. Circles indicate deities’ divine realms.
Even Buddhist monastery plans are based on the mandala layout. For instance, when King Trisong Detsen commissioned the Samye Monastery in Lhasa, it was based on the Odantapuri Monastery in Bihar, India. Completed in 775, every element of the Samye Monastery was designed for solemn sacred practice. According to the Samye Institute: “Pathways throughout the buildings allowed the monks and visitors to circumambulate and prostrate before the images of awakened body, speech, and mind.”
Buddhists entering the monastery, and its 108 temples richly decorated with celestial beings, walked through the Buddhist cosmos as set out by the mandala plan—from the periphery to the center. The outer monastery wall represents the edge of the world (the Cakravada mountains), while the three-storied main temple at the center represents Mount Meru at the center of the cosmos. Each story of the main temple represents a different style of Buddhist architecture: Tibetan, Indian, and Han Chinese. Four colored stupas (small shrines) mark each corner of the monastery. Each stupa symbolizes the four celestial guardians that protect the Buddhist teachings.
The mid-12th-century “Chemcok Heruka Mandala” from Taklung Monastery, 75 miles north of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, is based on two 8th-century Vajrayana texts. The artisan used the Indian Pala style of saturated colors and bold motifs, such as the vajra that points in the four directions. In the center, the deity Chemcok Heruka embraces his consort Dhatishvari. Esoteric manifestations of the major bodhisattvas surround the pair. Bodhisattva Manjushri, who guides and protects Buddhist knowledge, appears as Yamantaka. “Yamantaka” means “destroyer or conqueror of death”—that’s destroying the cycle of rebirth.
In the late 12th century, a Tibetan patron commissioned a Nepalese artisan to create the “Manjuvajra Mandala,” another form of Bodhisattva Manjushri. Different manifestations of the bodhisattva run across the top of the mandala to help the viewer access Vajrayana teachings. Experts know it’s a Nepalese painting due to its intricate style and full figures, and they also recognize some of the motifs used on 12th-century Nepalese manuscript covers.
Devout Buddhists
Art often shows the Tibetan Buddhism lineage, especially in portraits of Buddhist monks made to inspire devotion. These idealized portraits were of Tibetans well-versed in the Vajrayana texts and Indian masters (mahasiddhas) capable of guiding students in the teachings. In “Portrait of a Kadam Master With Buddhas and His Lineage,” a young monk sits like Shakyamuni Buddha: cross-legged in the lotus position (vajrasana) on a lotus flower atop a lion throne. A halo and rainbow mandorla symbolize his awakened state. He holds his hands in a teaching mudra (a divine hand signal). Seven Medicine Buddhas line the top of the mandala. Bodhisattva Shadakshari Avalokiteshvara (a four-armed manifestation of the bodhisattva) is in the center, directly above the monk. Celestial Buddhas of the ten-directional world (a Buddhist concept of the directions in the universe) frame the vertical axes.
Only devout Tibetan Buddhist adherents on the Vajrayana path to nirvana, departing the human realm and completing cultivation, can truly access the mandala mysteries. They would never divulge them. For the rest of us, we can delight in these heavenly works and only dream of what lies beyond the veil.
The “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City runs through Jan. 12, 2025. To find out more, visit MetMuseum.org
