Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Hevajra (Buddhist Deity) - (Hevajra Tantra)

ཀྱེ་རྡོ་རྗེ། ནང་ལྷ། 喜金刚(佛教本尊)
(item no. 58366)
Origin Location China
Date Range 1400 - 1499
Lineages Sakya, Gelug and Buddhist
Material Ground: Textile Image, Embroidery
Collection Margot and Tom Pritzker
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Appearance: Semi-Peaceful

Gender: Male

TBRC: bdr:P25326

Interpretation / Description

Shri Hevajra (Tibetan: pal gye pa dor je'i lha gu'i kyil khor) according to the system of Mahasiddha Virupa based on the Hevajra Tantra. Bibliographic reference: Hevajra Tantraraja Nama

Sanskrit: Hevajra Tibetan: Gye pa dor je

"...Shri Hevajra with a body blue in colour, eight faces, sixteen hands and four legs. The main face is blue, right white, left red, upper face smoky; the two remaining pairs of faces are black. Each face has three eyes and four bared fangs; yellow hair flowing upwards; the top of the head is marked with a vishvavajra. The sixteen hands hold sixteen skullcups. The first right holds a white elephant, the first left holds the yellow God of Earth; these two embrace the Mother. In the second right is a blue horse; third - ass with a white patch; fourth - yellow bull; fifth - ash-coloured camel; sixth - red man; seventh - blue sharabha; eighth - cat with a white patch. In the second left hand is the white God of Water; third - red God of Fire; fourth - green God of Air; fifth - white God of the Moon; sixth - red God of the Sun; seventh - blue Yama; eighth - yellow Holder of Wealth. Each head has a crown of five dry human skulls; and a necklace of fifty fresh heads; six bone ornaments; the two right legs are extended, on the thighs the toes of the two folded left legs are pressing in the half-[vajra] posture in a dancing manner; possessing the nine sentiments of dancing: grace, strength and ugliness; laughter, ferocity and frightful; compassion, fury and peace. In the lap is the mother Vajra Nairatmya, with a body blue in colour, one face, two hands, three eyes; yellow hair flowing upwards; right a curved knife, left holding a skullcup and embracing the father; five dry human skulls as a crown; a necklace of fifty dry [skulls]; five bone ornaments; left leg extended and the right drawn up embracing the father. Both are standing in the middle of a blazing fire of pristine awareness." (Ngagwang Legpa).

At the upper left is mahasiddha Virupa, the Lord of Yoga. At the upper right is the Tibetan teacher Jamchen Choje Shakya Yeshe wearing monastic robes and a black hat.

At the lower left is Panjarnata Mahakala. At the lower center is Vaishravana Riding a Lion. At the lower left side is Shri Devi Dudsolma riding a donkey.

Hevajra Lineage on Reverse: Vajradhara, Nairatmya, Virupa, Kanha, Damarupa, Avadhutipa, Gayadhara, Drogmi Lotsawa, Seton Kunrig, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, Sonam Tsemo, Dragpa Gyaltsen, Sakya Pandita, Chogyal Pagpa, Zhang Konchog Pal, Naza Dragpugpa, Choje Sonam, Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen, Shakya Yeshe.

Jeff Watt 2-2019

Inscription on the reverse of the textile:

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ན་མ། oM A Vajradhara Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་བདག་མེད་མ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Nairatama la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་འབིར་ཝ་པ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Birwapa la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ནག་པོ་པ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Nagpo Pa la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཌ་མ་རུ་པ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Damarupa la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཝ་དྷུ་ཏི་པ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Awadhutipa la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་གྷ་ཡ་དྷ་ར་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Gayadhara la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་འབྲོག་མི་ཤཱཀྱ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A 'brog mi shAkya ye shes la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨ་སེ་སྟོན་ཀུན་རིག་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Se ston kun rig la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ས་ཆེན་ཀུན་སྙིང་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A Sa chen kun snying la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་སློབ་དཔོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་བསོད་ནམས་རྩེ་མོ་ལ་ན་མོ།oM A slob dpon bsod nams rtse mo la na mo

ཨོམ་ཨཱ་རྗེ་བཙུན་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A grags pa rgyal mtshan la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ས་སྐྱ་པནྜི་ཏ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A saskya pan+Di ta la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A chos rgyal 'phags pa la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཞང་དཀོན་མཆོག་དཔལ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A zhang dkon mchog dpal la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ན་བཟའ་བྲག་ཕུག་པ་བསོད་ནམས་དཔལ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A na bza' brag phug pa la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་མཚུངས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྗེ་བསོད་ནམས་ཞབས་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A chos rje bsod nams zhabs la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མ་དམ་པ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A dpal ldan bla ma dam pa la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཨ་མོ་གྷ་ཤྲི་བྷ་ཏྲ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A a mo gha shri bha tra la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཤཱཀྱ་རྒྱལ་ཚབ་འགྲོ་བའི་སྐྱབས་གཅིག་པོ་ལ་ན་མོ། oM A shakya rgyal tshab 'gro ba'i skyabs la Namo

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་ལྡན་སྐུ་བཞི་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་བྱམས་ཆེན་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་མངའ་བདག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་ན་མོ།

ཨོཾ་ཨ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཞལ་སྔ་ན་ལ་ན་མོ། ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་བདག་བསོད་རྒྱལ་གནང་ལ་ན་མོ།

[Followed by the Hevajra, Nairatmya and retinue deity mantras, concluding with the Ye Dharma verse].

Secondary Images
Related Items
Exhibition Appearances
Exhibition: Faith & Empire - Art & Politics in Tibetan Buddhism

Thematic Sets
Buddhist Deity: Hevajra Painting & Textile (Masterworks)
Textile: Masterworks (纺织品, འཐག་དྲུབ་མ།)
Collection of Margot and Tom Pritzker (Paintings)
Buddhist Deity: Hevajra (Textiles) Page
Textile: Main Page
Textile: Woven Artwork Main Page
Teacher: Shakya Yeshe Main Page (Secondary Figure)
Teacher: Shakya Yeshe Main Page
Buddhist Deity: Hevajra Main Page