Worldly Protector (Buddhist) - Machen Pomra
(item no. 200030)

Tibet

1800 - 1899

Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton

Collection of Rubin Museum of Art

(acc.# F1998.3.15)

 


Amnye Machen: a mountain god of the Amdo region of north eastern Tibet.

Tibetan: Ma chen pom ra

Handsome in appearance with one face and two hands he holds upraised in the right a long spear with a fluttering pendent. The left holds to the side a golden treasure vase. Attired in the garb of a warrior, a helmet crowns the head and armor protects the torso, arms and legs. Bright coloured garments loosely worn are caught by the wind and unfurl upward. A bow and full quiver of arrows hang at the waist. Riding on the back of a white snow lion with a green mane, atop a leopard skin mat, he sits surrounded by a circle of rainbow light - also enclosing the mountain named Machen Pomra above.

At the top center is the primordial deity Shenlha Okar, peaceful, white, with the hands in meditation posture. At the left is a figure wearing monastic robes and a hat. At the right is a white Kandroma (Sky Goer) holding a curved knife and skullcup, standing in a dancing posture. At the right and left corners sit deity figures.

Directly below are two main attendant figures similarly enclosed in spheres of rainbow light. Mounted on horses, attendants numbering twenty-eight stand at the sides and below, also a monk with a yellow hat riding a bird, four figures in red cloaks standing at the bottom and numerous wild animals.

Jeff Watt & Lee Hartline 1-2000


View other items in:
Exhibition Appearance
Exhibition: Bon, The Magic Word (RMA 2007)

Thematic Set
Bon Artworks (All)
Bon: Protectors
Subject: Mountain Gods
1800 - 1899 (19th Century) Part III
Tibetan Mountain God: Machen Pomra
Collection of Rubin Museum of Art: Bon Artworks



Copyright © 2008 Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation.
Photographed Image Copyright © 2004 Rubin Museum of Art