Buddhist Deity: Ushnishavijaya & Stupa (Painting)

Ushnishavijaya Iconography

The two texts below both describe the iconographic form of Ushnishavijaya as Amitayus Buddha wth three faces and eight arms with accompanying retinue figures.

The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī with Its Ritual Manual,
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ཏོར་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས་རྟོག་པ་དང་བཅས་པ།
de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi gtsug tor rnam par rgyal ba zhes bya ba’i gzungs rtog pa dang bcas pa. Crown Victory of All Tathāgatas: The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī with Its Ritual Manual
Sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣavijayānāmadhāraṇīkalpasahitā. Toh 594.

1.42
Then the Blessed One Amitāyus taught the following sādhana:

“A skillful person who wishes beings to have limitless lifespans and to bring about their freedom from the pitiful state of saṃsāra should make a beautiful canvas that is the proper size out of threads that have been spun by a young maiden. Then, using a variety of colors of pigment, one should write the crown victory dhāraṇī inside a caitya that has been emanated from the letters of the dhāraṇī.

1.43
“Draw Amitāyus garlanded by thousands of light rays and seated upon a lotus and moon seat. He is luminous like the autumn moon and adorned with every ornament. He has three faces, each with three eyes, and he has eight arms. His right face is peaceful and radiant with golden light. His left face is fierce, with fangs biting down on his lower lip, and radiant with light the color of a blue utpala. His central face is charming and white. His right hands hold a crossed vajra at his heart, Amitābha seated on a lotus, an arrow, and the gesture of supreme generosity. His left hands hold a lasso with the threatening gesture, a bow, the gesture granting freedom from fear, and a vase. On his head is the syllable oṁ in a caitya, at his throat is the syllable āḥ, and at his heart the syllable huṁ. At his forehead is hraṁ, at his navel hrīḥ, and at his two feet aṁ aḥ. Arrange these syllables on his body and include the phrase rakṣa svāhā with one’s own name inside it.

1.44
“On either side of him are Padmapāṇi and Vajradhara holding white tail whisks. Above, like a flow of nectar raining down, are a pair of gods from the pure abodes. In the four directions are wrathful Acala, Kāmarāja, Nīladaṇḍa, and Mahābala. They hold a sword, a hook, a club, and a vajra, respectively, and their left hands brandish the threatening gesture to frighten malevolent beings.

The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī with Its Ritual Manual (2). Uṣṇīṣavijayādhāraṇīkalpasahitā
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ཏོར་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས་རྟོག་པ་དང་བཅས་པ།
de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi gtsug tor rnam par rgyal ba zhes bya ba’i gzungs rtog pa dang bcas pa. Crown Victory of All Tathāgatas: The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī with Its Ritual Manual
Sarvatathāgatauṣṇīṣavijayānāmadhāraṇīkalpasahitā. Toh 595. Degé Kangyur, vol. 90 (rgyud ’bum, pha), folios 237.b–242.a.

1.20
Then the Blessed One Amitāyus taught the following sādhana: [F.240.b]

“A skillful person who wishes beings to have limitless lifespans and to bring about their freedom from the pitiful state of saṃsāra should make a beautiful canvas that is the proper size out of threads that have been spun by a young maiden. Then, using a variety of colors of pigment, one should write the crown victory dhāraṇī inside a caitya that has been emanated from the letters of the dhāraṇī.

1.21
“Draw Amitāyus garlanded by thousands of light rays and seated upon a lotus and moon seat. He is luminous like the autumn moon and adorned with every ornament. He has three faces, each with three eyes, and he has eight arms. His right face is peaceful and radiant with golden light. His left face is fierce, with fangs biting down on his lower lip, and radiant with light the color of a blue utpala. His central face is charming and white. His right hands hold a crossed vajra at his heart, Amitābha seated on a lotus, an arrow, and the gesture of supreme generosity. His left hands hold a lasso with the threatening gesture, a bow, the gesture granting freedom from fear, and a vase. On his head is the syllable oṁ in a caitya, at his throat is the syllable āḥ, and at his heart the syllable huṁ. At his forehead is hraṁ, at his navel hrīḥ, and at his two feet aṁ aḥ. Arrange these syllables on his body and include the phrase rakṣa svāhā with one’s own name inside it.

1.22
“On either side of him are Padmapāṇi and Vajradhara holding white tail whisks. Above, like a flow of nectar raining down, are a pair of gods from the pure abodes. In the four directions are wrathful Acala, Kāmarāja, Nīladaṇḍa, and Mahābala. They hold a sword, a hook, a club, and a vajra, respectively, and their left hands brandish the threatening gesture to frighten malevolent beings.

HAR Team, uploaded 3-2025