亨廷顿存档 - 藏传佛教艺术在线展览

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70 Chakrasamvara Mandala
Nepal
Inscribed and dated N.S. 610 (1490)
Cloth with natural and mineral pigments
H: 46 in. (116.8 cm) W: 34 5/8 in. (88 cm)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum Acquisition Purchase (M.73.2.1)


The Chakrasamvara Mandala is the archetype of the Highest Yoga Tantra meditation cycles in Newar Buddhism. Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi are the principle deities of secret shrines in Newar Buddhist institutions. The shrines and the rituals related, however, are accessible only to the initiated Buddhists, and images or paintings of Chakrasamvara are never displayed in public. Although Chakrasamvara’s significance is commonly known in Newar Buddhism, these practices are rarely openly discussed with the uninitiated.

This painting provides a wonderful example of the fully detailed Chakrasamvara mandala iconography. Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi are situated at the mandala’s core and a series of concentric circles, signifying the systematic purification of the practitioner’s body, radiates outward. The entire mandala is surrounded by the eight charnel fields, as an environment of renunciation of egoistic craving to prepare the practitioner for meditation.

The painting was offered in commemoration of the one-year death-rite ceremony of Vajracharya Uhlasa, depicted as a white-haired figure at the lower right. The accuracy with which the scene also represents the priests performing the fire-sacrifice rituals is remarkable, since even in the contemporary context, similar rituals with Vajracharya priests continue to be performed with the same dynamism and vitality of the donors.

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In Tantric meditation, paintings such as this serve as visualization tools for the meditative practices, in which the practitioner realizes his or her own identity as the fully enlightened Buddha. Each symbolic nuance of the intensely detailed iconography must be completely internalized, to the point that it becomes second nature during the meditations. This process cultivates of mental awareness to realize the absolute truth: the emptiness of all phenomena. It is the blissful nondual union of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi that metaphorically symbolizes this enlightened state.
Painted by Newar artists for Tibetan patrons, the magnificent painting of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi demonstrates the complexity of Tantric iconography and great artistic refinement of Nepalese art. Chakrasamvara's wrathful nature is superbly expressed in his face, crown of dried skulls, and garland of freshly severed heads, strung together with human entrails. Both he and Vajravarahi, who is visualized as an energetic, luminous female Buddha, are adorned with exquisitely detailed bone ornaments, such as earrings, necklace, bracelets, and girdle. Wonderfully imaginative and macabre scenes of the eight charnel fields surround the central pair; nonetheless the required iconographic elements, such as the Directional Guardians, Mahasiddhas, stupas, trees, or clouds, are rendered with exact textual precision.

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73 Ritual Manuscript of Chakrasamvara’s Sixty-Four Animal Headed Forms
Nepal
Ca. 19th century
Paper with water-based pigments
H: 34 1/4 in. (81.9 cm) W: 29 3/4 in.
Private collection


In a uniquely Newar expression of the embodiment as the totality of the phenomenal world, Chakrasamvara manifests himself as sixty-four animal-headed forms. As a remarkable resource for Newar Buddhist iconography, this 19th-century Newar manuscript not only depicts these rarely seen forms of Chakrasamvara, but the visualization invocations also accompany each figure. The manuscript begins with the standard visualization of the twelve-armed Chakrasamvara as the Guru and culminates with the goddess, Guhyeshvari as the primordial source of Newar Buddhist system. Her thousand arms and multiple heads, depicting the five Jina Buddhas with their respective colors further indicate her universal nature.

Unique to Nepal, Guhyeshvari, "Secret Goddess," is both Prajnaparamita and an aspect of Vajrayogini. As Prajnaparamita, she is called the “mother of all Buddhas” (sarva buddha janani) and is praised as source of all knowledge and Buddhahood. As an aspect of Vajravarahi, appearing in a different form, she was the primordial teacher of the Newar tradition of the Chakrasamvara meditations. In the manuscript she is surrounded the four Yoginis of the Chakrasamvara/Vajravarahi meditations and others who are visualized in the Newar version of the Meditations

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74 Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi
Nepal
1575-1600
Opaque pigments on cotton cloth
H: 28 in. (71.1 cm) W: 24 in. (61 cm)
Zimmerman Family Collection


This vibrant painting of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi is specifically Newar Buddhist both in iconography and style. The predominantly red palette, vigorous stylization of the flame motifs and the intricate scroll motifs are typical of late 16th century Newar art. Similarly, the facial moods of Chakrasamvara also display a distinct Newar iconographic convention. Here, the yellow face is pacific with its half-closed meditative eyes while the other three, presenting the wrathful aspect of Chakrasamvara, are red-rimmed wide-open eyes. Although very conventional in its iconographic statements and compositional construction, the painting demonstrates the intensity with which the Chakrasamvara cycles continue to be the foundation of great artistic creativity among the Newar Buddhists, inspiring their patrons with such rich visual expressions of the state of nonduality.

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79 Chakrasamvara Mandala
Nepal
Ca. 1812 (N.S. [9?]32)
Opaque watercolor on cloth
H: 49 1/4 in. (125 cm) W: 36 5/8 in. (93 cm)
Collection R.R.E

In a brilliantly articulated visual language, this magnificent painting allows the practitioner to visualize step-by-step the process of the complex meditations on Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi. The vertical axis of the painting contains the exact forms of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi encountered during the generation and completion stages of the three-fold meditations (Tri Samadhi), specific to the practices found in Newar Buddhism. The meditations begin with the two-armed white Chakrasamvara seen at the top center and continue with visualizing the complete mandala of Chakrasamvara represented at the center. Finally, the meditation culminates in the completion stages with Vajravarahi, depicted here at the bottom center. As a meditational instructional tool, the painting enables the practitioner to understand the process to identity him or herself with the central deities Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi. In this manner, the enlightened bliss of their nondual union will eventually be experience by the practicing yogin.

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81 Blue Innate (Sahaja) Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi
Central Tibet
Between 1075 and 1125
Opaque watercolor on cotton cloth
H: 23 9/16 in. (60 cm) W: 19 7/8 in. (50.5 cm)
Private Collection, Switzerland (TiT 64)

In one of the most impressive early Tibetan paintings, Chakrasamvara is represented in his two-armed Innate (Sahaja) form, which marks the initial stage of the generation stage meditations. The word sahaja means “born together,” suggesting the nondual unity of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi. There is also an understanding that these deities are innate within the practitioner as well.

Standing in a dynamic lunging posture, blue Chakrasamvara embraces Vajravarahi, as she bears the flaying knife and skullcup.
The two registers represent the male and female Armor Deities, who protect and prepare the practitioner’s body to effectively complete the powerful meditations. The iconographic accuracy with which the deities are depicted gives confirmation of the contextual use of the painting as a meditative devise, encapsulating the process of experiencing the state of bliss.

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84a White (Sita) Chakrasamvara/Vajravarahi as the Progenitors of White Wisdom Great Black One (Sita Jnana Mahakala) and His Mandala
Eastern Tibet
Ca. 18th to 19th century, Karma Gadri school
Opaque watercolor on cloth
H: 64 in. (162.56 cm) W: 76 in. (193 cm)
Navin Kumar, New York


In Tantric Buddhist iconography, Mahakala often functions as an exoteric manifestation of Chakrasamvara. Iconographically rare and complex, this painting demonstrates this little-known nuance that white Wisdom (Jnana) Mahakala is inherent in the completion state of Chakrasamvara/Vajravarahi.

In the center of this exquisite painting is White (Sita) Chakrasamvara /Vajravarahi , surrounded by the four Yoginis of the inner circle of the mandala. Across the bottom is an abbreviated mandala of the Wisdom Mahakala, with five forms of Mahakala and eight animal-headed Dakinis. In the completion-stage context, they are all appropriately shown in their purified white-bodied states.

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85 Donkey-Faced (Kharamukha) Chakrasamvara Mandala
Tibet
Ca. 16th century
Opaque watercolor on cotton cloth
H: 23 in. (49.2 cm) W: 18 1/4 in. (39 cm)
Zimmerman Family Collection


The ultimate goal of the Chakrasamvara meditation is to realize that the entire physical world is empty of all self-nature and has no absolute reality. Once this is understood, the yogin realizes that absolute reality is defined by illusion, and the two are completely inseparable, much like the union of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi.

This rare painting of Donkey-faced Chakrasamvara illustrates this dichotomy of illusion and reality and emphasizes the multiple layers of Chakrasamvara imagery. The Sanskrit word, khara means "hard, rough," with the sense of sold and concrete; the secondary meaning is donkey, derived from the sound that the animal makes. Thus, as the center of the mandala, the Donkey-faced Chakrasamvara manifests phenomenal physical world, which corresponds to Chakrasamvara’s innate (sahaja) nature. By replacing the deities’ faces with those of the lowly donkey, all expectations and traditional categories have been overturned, yet another essential understanding in Tantric practices.

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86 25-Deity Buddhakapala Mandala
Newar artists at Densatil Monastery, Ü District Central Tibet
Ca. 1417 to1447
Opaque watercolor on cotton cloth
H: 32 3/4 in. (83 1/2 cm) W: 28 3/4 in. (73 cm)
Private Collection, Switzerland


The Buddhakapala Mandala emphasizes the process of collapsing the physical world into realizing the state of the absolute void, part of the completion stage of the Chakrasamvara meditations. The name Buddhakapala refers to Chakrasamvara, for in Tantric methodologies it is not unusual for a deity to be given a different name at each stage in the meditational practice. The name Buddhakapala means “Skull-Cup of the Enlightened Being,” implying that the purification rituals need to reach Buddhahood have been completed and the practitioner is now ready for attainment.

The identification of this painting from a well-known group of mandalas as being from the Great monastery at Densatil is a major breakthrough in the study of Tibetan painting. It was accomplished by identifying the central teacher in the top row as Sonam Gyalsan (also known by his Sanskrit name Punyadhvaja “Banner of Merit”) who was abbot of Densatil from 1417 to 1447.

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87 Shat Chakravarti Mandala
Tibetan artist of the Bal ri school
Tsang district, west-central Tibet
Ca. 16th century
Opaque watercolors on cotton cloth
H: 23 in. (49 cm) W: 27 in. (58 cm)
Framed H: 29 1/2 in. (63 cm) W: 34 1/2 in. (74 cm)
Private collection

The Shat Chakravarti refers to the six Buddha families: the five Jina Buddhas and Vajrasattva, representing the five transcendental insights and Vajrasattva, who generates them. They are also known as the “Armor Deities” in the Chakrasamvara meditations and after the completion of the generations stage are placed in the meditations They are essential to the transformative practices of the Chakrasamvara Tantra as they protect and purify the practitioner’s mind in preparation for the completion stage meditations. The center of the mandala depicts Vajrasattva, and the mandalas of the five Jina Buddhas are arranged around him, each with his own female aspect.

Stylistically, this painting is an excellent example of the late Balri “Newar-style” school, primarily supported by the Sakya sect throughout the Tsang Valley. The school had its origins with the Newar artists who first worked for the Sakya patrons and trained Tibetans in the aesthetics and techniques. This style exhibits the vibrant colors, with the predominant red background and intricate scroll motifs in the background. This school continued with considerable vitality until the early 17th century.

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88 Four Mandalas of the Vajravali
Ngor Monastery. Tsang district, Tibet
Ca. early 15th century
Opaque watercolor on cotton cloth
H: 36 in. (91.4 cm) W: 29 in. (73.7 cm)
Zimmerman Family Collection


The name Vajravali “Vajra Garland,” refers to the garland of deities known as vajras, essentially “Adamantine Persona,” throughout esoteric Buddhism. The Vajravali text provides the rules and systems for mandala initiations, mantras, and other key elements related to Tantric Buddhist practice. Offerings of the paintings of the Vajravali were frequently created on the death of one’s teacher. They constitute essentially a death offering and a prayer for the final attainment of the rainbow body of the teacher, offered by the disciple.

This painting is part of one of the most famous of such offerings, because this specific series is mentioned in the 1688 biography of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1456), the founder of the famous Ngor Monastery of the Sakya sect. It states that he commissioned a complete set of the Vajravali mandalas, shortly after the founding of the monastery in 1429, in honor of his deceased third root teacher, Sazang Phagpa the Younger (1358-1412/1424). This painting is specifically inscribed to Sazang Phagpa, conforming to the information in the biographic source. The inscription at the bottom reads: “May the glorious holy Lama Sazang Phagpa’s wishes be perfectly realized.” The four mandalas in this painting are surrounded by charnel fields, and the upper register contains the sixteen deities related to inner body meditation, while the lower register contains sixteen goddesses making offerings of music, song, flowers, incense, etc.