Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Marichi (Buddhist Deity) - (1 face, 2 hands)

འོད་སེར་ཅན་མ། ནང་ལྷ། 具光佛母(佛教本尊)
(item no. 220)
Origin Location China
Date Range 1800 - 1899
Lineages Uncertain
Size 86.36x48.26cm (34x19in)
Material Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton
Collection Shelley & Donald Rubin
Catalogue # acc.# P1996.3.1
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Appearance: Peaceful

Gender: Female

Interpretation / Description

Marichi (Tibetan: ozer chen ma): the Goddess of the Dawn.

At the top is red Marichi with one face and two hands riding a horse. In the upraised right hand is a red sun marked with the Chinese character for the sun. The left hand holds a white lotus flower. She rides atop a white horse above a very large image of the sun.

The large red circular sun is gold fringed and adorned in the center with the ancient Chinese symbol of a three-legged crow, portrayed here as a golden rooster.

Below that is Marichi in her obstacle removing form, yellow in colour, with three faces and eight hands, riding on a chariot drawn by seven sows.

"... with a body yellow in colour, three faces and eight hands. The main face is yellow, the right red and the left a blue sow face. Each face has three eyes. The four right hands hold a vajra, hook, arrow and needle. The four left hold a branch of the ashoka tree, bow, thread and a wrathful gesture. Wearing a red lower garment and adorned with jewels and a garland of small bells." (Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrup (1497-1557). Taken from the Drup Thab Gyatsa. sGrub Thabs Kun bTus, vol.12).

Jeff Watt 2-2001

Related Items
Exhibition Appearances
Exhibition: Female Buddhas at Bruce Museum of Art

Thematic Sets
Buddhist Deity: Deities (Female)
Collection of Shelley & Donald Rubin
Buddhist Deity: Marichi (Yellow Forms)
Buddhist Deity: Marichi Main Page
Buddhist Deity: Marichi, Kalpoktam (Three Faces & Eight Arms)
Buddhist Deity: Marichi Riding a Chariot
Subject: Sun & Moon