Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Padmasambhava - Guru Dragpo (meditational form)

པད་མ་འབྱུང་གནས། 莲花生大士
(item no. 90740)
Origin Location Mongolia
Date Range 1800 - 1899
Lineages Nyingma
Material Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton
Collection Tibet House, New York
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Deity

Appearance: Wrathful

Gender: Male

Interpretation / Description

Guru Drakpo, Yab-Yum (English: the Wrathful Teacher, Father-Mother): fearsome form of Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava according to the Revealed Treasure Tradition of the Nyingma School.

Dark maroon in colour, with one face and two hands, he holds upraised in the right a gold vajra and the left extended to the side a kila (Tibetan: phur ba) dagger. Adorned with skull and bone ornaments, a necklace of freshly severed heads, human and elephant skins; the lower body is wrapped with a tiger skin skirt. Embracing the Father is the Mother consort, dark blue, holding a skullcup in the left hand. The left leg wraps around the waist of the Father. They stand atop a sun disc surrounded by the wildly burning orange flames of pristine awareness.

At the top center is the Buddha Amitabha. Guru Rinpoche sits at the left. Green Tara sits at the right. At the middle left stands the tutelary deity 'Secret Accomplishment' Hayagriva. At the right is the wrathful form of the bodhisattva of power, Vajrapani.

At the bottom center is the female protector Ekajati. On the left is the nine faced Rahula and Vajra Sadhu, riding on a snow lion, at the right.

Jeff Watt 2-2000

Related Items
Thematic Sets
Collection of Tibet House: New York (Repatriation)
Tradition: Nyingma Deity Paintings
Padmasambhava: Meditational Forms
Padmasambhava: Guru Dragpo Main Page
Padmasambhava: Guru Dragpo (With Consort)