Item: Mandala of Mandala

Four Mandalas of the Vajravali Cycle.

At the top left is the Pancharaksha Thirteen Deity Mandala (#42). At the top right is the Vasudhara Nineteen Deity mandala.(#43) At the lower left is the Grahamatrika Mahavidya Fifty One Deity Mandala (#44) At the lower right is the Ushnishavijaya Thirty-three Deity Mandala (#45)

At the top of the painting in the clouds above the mandalas are six of the pre-incarnations of Jonang Taranatha, indicating that this painting was commissioned by a member of the Jonang school. They are flanking Manjusri in the top center.

From left to right they are: Ratan Bahula, Mahasiddha Krishnacarya , Barompa Darma Wangchuk (dar ma dbang phyug), Rongzom Chozang (rong zom chos bzang), Ozer Pal (‘od zer dpal), Lhanangpa Sangye Rinchen (sangs rgyas ras chen).

In between the four mandalas there are five deities: one in the center and each of the four cardinal directions. Mahapratisara is the yellow female deity at the top with four faces amd twelve arms, just below Manjusri. Usnisavijaya is in the center. Vasudhara with six arms is on the right. Grahamatrika is on the left. Each of these deities is the central deity of the four mandalas.

At the bottom is Chaturmukha Mahakala, which the artist has included despite there being no iconographic relation to the mandalas.

This inclusion is most likely because the artist copied an (original Ngor mandala), but misinterpreted the identity of the dark colored deity at the bottom. In that original Ngor painting it is one of the Pancharaksha deities, but the artist of this painting perhaps mistook it for Chaturmukha Mahakala.

Nick Dharmadi 8-2026