Item: Amoghasiddhi Buddha

Amoghasiddhi, Buddha (Tibetan: don yo dru pa, sang gye): the patriarch of the last of the Five Families of Transcendent, or Symbolic, Buddhas.

In full form Amoghasiddhi is green in colour with the right hand raised in a gesture (mudra) to the heart and the left placed in the lap in a meditative gesture.

This triangular object is meant to be placed at the top of a banner with decorative streamers hanging below as seen in the this example (from a life-story painting of a Tibetan teacher, Chogyal Pagpa). Banners such as these would hang from pillars inside temples. Very large banners, as in the example, would hang from the rooves of buildings during special visits by dignitaries or on important holy days. The Rubin Museum of Art banner is quite small and would likely be used as a ritual decorative object in the construction of a peaceful mandala or used on a personal shrine.

(For other examples of these types of paintings see: From the Sacred Realm Treasures of Tibetan Art from the Newark Museum. Prestel Verlag, 1999. Pages 240-241, plates 138a and 138b).

Jeff Watt 10-2006

Reverse of Painting
English Translation of Inscription: No inscriptions.