Item: Padmasambhava - (Main Form)

Padmasambhava (Tibetan: pe ma jung ne, English: the Lotus Born): Guru Rinpoche - the principal founder of Buddhism in Tibet, 8th century. (See the Padmasambhava Main Page, Outline Page and Eight Forms Outline Page).

Pemasambhava Pema Jungne Biographical Details

With one face staring forward with large round eyes, a moustache and two hands, he holds in the right, resting atop the knee, a gold vajra. Supported in the lap the left hand holds a white skullcup containing a gold long-life vase. Against the left shoulder rests an ornate katvanga staff. Adorned with earrings, necklaces and bracelets, a lotus hat crowned with a feather, he is attired in the robes of a layman, monk and tantric adept - wearing colourful boots. Relaxed in a posture of ease with the right leg pendant he sits above a moon disc and pink blossom atop a stem rising from a blue lotus pond. Standing at the left side is the consort Yeshe Tsogyal, white with one face and two hands. At the right is the consort Mandarava, richly attired and holding a skullcup. At the top center is the buddha of long-life, Amitayus, red in colour with the two hands in the gesture of meditation. At the bottom center is a lama wearing monastic robes seated on a low cushion before a table of religious objects.

The remaining figures are the 8 main manifestations of Guru Rinpoche. At the top left is (1) Guru Oddiyana Vajradhara, blue, holding a vajra and bell embracing the consort. (2) Guru Padmasambhava holds a skullcup in the right hand and performs the mudra of blessing with the left, wearing monastic robes. (3) Guru Loden Chogse holds a damaru drum in the right hand and a skullcup in the left, wearing regal attire. At the top right is (4) Guru Shakya Sengge appearing as Shakyamuni buddha. (5) Guru Padma Raja is red in colour and holds a damaru in the right hand and a mirror in the left, wearing the fashion of a king. (6) Guru Nyima Ozer is yellow in colour and holds a katvanga staff in the right hand and emanates rays of the sun from the left. Seated in a relaxed posture he has the appearance of an Indian mahasiddha.

At the bottom right is (7) Guru Dorje Drolo, extremely wrathful and maroon in colour he holds a vajra upraised in the right hand and a kila (Tib.: purba) in the left, riding atop a tiger and surrounded by flames. At the left is (8) Guru Sengge Dradog, wrathful, blue, holding aloft a vajra in the right hand and performing a wrathful gesture with the left, surrounded by flames.

Jeff Watt 2-99