Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Worldly Protector (Buddhist) - Drogdze Wangmo

འཇིག་རྟེན་པའི་ལྷ། ནང་ལྷ། 世俗的神(佛教)
(item no. 365)
Origin Location Tibet
Date Range 1600 - 1699
Lineages Nyingma
Size 24.13x17.78cm (9.50x7in)
Material Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton
Collection Private
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Appearance: Wrathful

Gender: Female

Interpretation / Description

Drogdze Wangmo (English: the Powerful Friend): Nyingma protector of the Terma (Treasure) Tradition.

"...One Mother, Mistress of the Three Realms, with a body maroon in colour, ferocious and frightful in appearance, with one face and two hands. In the right, eating the heart of an enemy, blood dripping and warm. Reflecting the Three Realms - the left holds a mirror. Wearing an upper garment of white silk, a tiger skin lower garment and a fresh human skin cloak. Dark brown hair hanging downward, earrings, a crown of five dry skulls and a necklace of fifty fresh, a garland of bones and a long necklace; standing haughtily with the left leg extended..." (Min-ling Lochen Dharmashri, 1654-1718. Tibetan source text part II, pp.261-262).

Very wrathful, maroon in colour, she has one face and two hands, three round eyes and bared fangs. The right hand holds a heart up to the mouth and the left upraised holds a mirror. Adorned with a tiara of five skulls, bone earrings, necklace, bracelets, anklets and a long necklace of severed heads she wears an upper robe of elephant skin and a lower skirt of tiger skin. Standing with the right leg bent and the left straight above a corpse and sun disc atop a variously coloured lotus flower she is surrounded by the flames of wisdom fire. At the upper left and right and below are four attendant dakinis, yellow, red, white and blue, each in the same appearance as the Lord Mistress - holding a heart and mirror.

"Owner of all charnel ground places, baneful Mistress of local protectors and dakas, with unsurpassed power of prescience and magical emanation; homage to the yogini Drogdze Wangmo." (Nyingma liturgical verse).

Jeff Watt 10-98

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Buddhist Protectors: Worldly (Female)