Dharmapala Thangka CentreSchool of Thangka Painting


4.16 Manjushri [2]

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In the center of the painting is the white Bodhisattva Manjushri making the teaching gesture [vitarkamudra]. To the left a Tibetan book, a manuscript of the Prajnaparamitra Sutra, is placed on a lotus blossom. Manjushri is depicted here somewhat differently than usual in that he is not holding the flaming sword of knowledge in his right hand. Here the sword is placed on another lotus blossom.

At top center of the painting the red Budda Amitabha is depicted with his hands in the meditation gesture [dhyanamudra]. On his left and right two other Manjushri manifestations are depicted. The one on the left is in the Diamond posture [vajrasana] with a flaming sword of wisdom and a Tibetan book, and the one on the right is in the Ardhaparyanka posture, where one leg is hanging down. This manifestation of Manjushri sits on a lion with his hands in the same gesture of teaching as the central Manjushri.

Four wisdom consorts frame the central Manushri. They are symbols of the four Mantra syllables "Ra", "Pa", "Cha" and "Na" of his Arapachana Mantra. Each wisdom consort carries his book of Sutras, and two of them also hold his flaming sword.

On the lower left the white Prajnaparamita is depicted. Her hands make the gesture of teaching. On her left and right two Tibetan books placed on lotus blossoms symbolize the transcendent wisdom of Prajnaparamita.

On the lower right sits Sarasvati, the goddess of music, poetry and rhetoric, with her lute. Those who wish to succeed in these arts worship this goddess.

Another white Prajna goddess is found in the lower central part of the painting. Like all the other deities in this painting, she encourages the development of discrimination and transcendent wisdom.

The Adibuddha expresses the undifferentiated openness from which all forms arise. The Five Dhyani Buddhas, primary emanations of the Adibuddha, each manifest one of the five aspects of enlightened wisdom.

These five Buddhas in meditation are inseparable, and represent different aspects of Buddhahood. They incarnated forms of mystical wisdom have been placed in a sophisticated system that has developed over many centuries.

Similar to the Lokapalas, they stand for the five cardinal points [five, because here the center is also regarded as the direction].

Mañjushrî is an ancient Buddha who vowed to emanate throughout the universe as the always youthful, princely Bodhisattva of Transcendent Wisdom. His special purpose is to lead the audiences of the Buddha in the inquiry into the shelf, to discover the true nature of reality. He is usually depicted holding the text of the -Transcendent Wisdom [Prajnyaparamita[ Sutra in his left hand and the double-edged sword of analytic discrimination, which cuts through all delusions, in his right.

>Mañjushrî raises his hands in front of his heart in the teaching gesture. He sits comfortable in the pose of ease atop an ornate Iotus pedestal whose base is decorated with winding vines and cavorting lions, probably a reference to the lion mount he sometimes rides.

Mañjushrî carries with his right hand the double edged sword able to cut through illusion and with his left hand a blooming lotus that supports a volume of the Prajna-paramita Sutra. He is depicted as a youth of sixteen years in order to convey the Buddhist insight that wisdom is not a matter of mere experience or years, but results from the cultivation of intellectual genius, which can penetrate directly to the bedrock of reality.

Wisdom is the most honoured virtue in Buddhism, called the Mother of all Buddhas, since only wisdom makes possible the great bliss of total freedom from all suffering that is the goal all living beings. Thus, Mañjushrî is one the most important of all Buddhist deities, the veritable god of wisdom and herald of emancipation.

In the sutras, Mañjushrî has a Pure Land another universe, wherein he manifests himself as the Buddha he actually is. He is in fact a perfect Buddha who vowed to emanate all over the universe as a Bodhisattva to put the hard questions of the Buddhas on the topics of voidness, freedom, and the nature of the self. But in the popular Tibetan imagination , Mañjushrî has his earthly Pure Land at the magical Five Mountain Paradise [Chinese: Wutaishan; Tibetan: Riwo Tsenga] in north-east China, one of the most, important pilgrimage places for Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese Buddhists.


PropertyValue
Measurements: 12.6 x 18.9" | 32 x 48 cm
Price: on request
Shipment: Parcel Service from Germany or Nepal
Color: Color Version
Material: Natural Stone Colors