Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Vairochana Buddha

ཀུན་རིག་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད། 普明大日如来(佛教本尊)
(item no. 88670)
Origin Location Northern India
Lineages Buddhist
Material Metal, Mercuric Gild
Collection Asia Society
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Interpretation / Description

Shakyamuni/Vairochana Buddha.

4.65. “First one should paint the Tathāgata Śākyamuni, endowed with all of his excellent forms, his body marked with the thirty-two marks of a perfect man and adorned with the eighty minor characteristics. He sits on a jeweled lotus, his form surrounded by a halo of light to the distance of one fathom all around. He teaches the Dharma with a serene expression. {4.65}

4.66. “Beneath the great throne in the center, which consists of a lotus with a strong beryl stalk, are two nāga kings—Nanda and Upananda—who support the stalk. They should be painted in half-human, half-serpent form, looking at the Tathāgata and greeting him with their right hands. A lotus pond should be painted surrounding them that is filled with lotus leaves and flowers with opening buds and teeming with aquatic creatures such as birds, fish, and so forth. All the figures throughout it should be of exquisite form. {4.66}

Toh 543. The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī. (Mañjuśrī­mūla­kalpa, ’jam dpal gyi rtsa ba’i rgyud).

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