Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Simhamukha (Buddhist Deity)

སེང་གདོང་མ། ནང་ལྷ། 狮面空行佛母(佛教本尊)
(item no. 7918)
Origin Location Tibet
Date Range 1500 - 1599
Lineages Nyingma and Buddhist
Material Ground: Cotton
Collection Private
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Interpretation / Description

"...the wisdom Dakini Simhamukha, with a body blue-black in colour, one face, two hands; three eyes, red, round and glaring; bared fangs and a curled tongue. The right hand holds aloft to the sky a curved-knife marked with a vajra. The left a blood filled skullcup to the heart, carrying a three-pointed khatvanga staff in the bend of the left elbow. Orange hair, eyebrows and beard flowing upwards, with five dry human heads as a crown and fifty wet, blood dripping, as a necklace. With five bone ornaments and a tiger skin as a lower garment; standing on the left leg with the right drawn-up, in the middle of a blazing fire of pristine awareness." [sGrub Thabs Kun bTus, vol.8, folios 288-290. Translated in 1989].

Jeff Watt [updated 6-2019]

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Painting Set: Ratna Lingpa (& Kagyu) 'Terma' Set
Buddhist Deity: Simhamukha Main Page
Subject: Dakini - witches, spirits & deities
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