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

Marichi, 'Goddess of the Dawn' holding a needle and thread.

Marichi is in the appearance of a female goddess, sixteen years of age, youthful and beautiful. She has one face and two arms, yellow in colour. In the right hand she holds a needle and in the left a long strand of thread. She is adorned with earrings, a necklace, bangles, and a multi-coloured skirt. In a crouching posture she kneels atop a large sows.

Marichi is a deity with many different forms. In this appearance, as in most, she has the function of removing obstacles and specifically outer obstacles meaning real external threats and dangers to a persons physical body or mental well being. In the right and left hands she holds a needle and thread. With these she symbolically takes all the gathered obstacles and life's problems and sews them up all together in a bag for disposal. Likewise for those ill intentions, imprecations and curses of harm doers and gossip mongers their lips and eyes are sewn together to put a stop to their harmful actions.

Artistic Elements of the Composition:
- Subject: figurative
- Composition Type: Floating Figure
- Ground Colour: Multi-coloured
- Painting Style: Contemporary Tibetan
- Region: Eastern Tibet
- Date: 21st century
- Inscriptions: none
- Back of Painting: plain
- Artist: Gendan Tenpa

Jeff Watt 4-2016