Passage

Purpose IX of nine

Birth, death and return

Kshitigarbha vowed not to pass on while a single being remained below, and he is painted as a monk with a staff and a jewel — the staff to force the gates, the jewel for light to see by. The Wheel of Life, gripped at its rim by Yama, sets out the whole circuit he works inside.

**The Wheel of Life, held at its rim by Yama.** *Wheel of Life · 34 × 46 cm · Mineral pigment and 24k gold*

A vow with no end date

Kshitigarbha vowed not to pass into buddhahood while a single being remained in the lower realms, and he is painted as a monk rather than as a crowned bodhisattva — shaven-headed, a staff in one hand and a wish-fulfilling jewel in the other. The staff is for forcing gates. The jewel is for light to see by. It is the plainest figure in the whole set, doing the hardest job in it.

The diagram

The Wheel of Life sets out the entire circuit he works inside: six realms in the spokes, the twelve links around the rim, three animals at the hub, and the whole thing gripped in the jaws and claws of Yama, who is time. It is the one thangka that is a teaching diagram before it is an object of devotion, and it was traditionally painted on the porch wall of a monastery — outside, where anyone could read it without going in.

Three from this purpose

六道轮回图 · TK-011 Thangka Painting Catalogue preview

地藏王菩萨 · SP-006 Statue Catalogue preview

奋迅度母 · JPTK-020 Thangka Painting Catalogue preview

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Forty-nine days

The customary occasions are a funeral, the forty-nine days that follow one, and the anniversary — dates that arrive without notice. Nothing here is sold as an intervention, and nothing here is claimed to alter an outcome. It is what a family has traditionally put in the room while they sit with it.

Commissioned for a funeral, for the forty-nine days that follow one, and for the anniversary.

The figures · 4 figures

Wheel of Life六道轮回

The Wheel of Life, a diagram of cyclic existence

Not a deity but a teaching diagram. A wheel is held in the jaws and claws of Yama, lord of death. At the hub a pig, a snake and a cockerel circle nose to tail. The ring beyond shows figures rising and falling. The third ring divides into the six realms, and the outer rim carries twelve small scenes. A buddha stands outside the wheel.

It is traditionally painted at the entrance to monastery assembly halls as a summary of the teaching on rebirth, and is kept as an image for contemplation rather than as a protective one.

See Wheel of Life pieces

Kshitigarbha地藏王菩萨

Kshitigarbha, who vowed to empty the hell realms

He is shown as a monk rather than as a jewelled bodhisattva: shaven head, or a five-panelled crown, and plain monastic robes, seated on a lotus or standing. His right hand holds a ringed staff, the khakkhara, whose rings sound to announce a monk's approach. His left holds a wish-fulfilling jewel that gives light in dark places.

He is traditionally associated with the dead and with beings in the lower realms, and his image is customarily commissioned in memory of a relative or during funerary observances.

See Kshitigarbha pieces

Chitipati尸陀林主

Chitipati, the dancing skeleton lords of the charnel ground

They appear as a pair of skeletons, male and female, dancing together on a lotus inside a ring of flame. Each wears a crown of small skulls and a flying silk scarf, and each holds a skull-topped club in one hand and a skull cup in the other. Heads are tilted back, mouths open, one leg raised mid-step.

In the tradition they are the protectors of the charnel grounds and belong to the retinue of Chakrasamvara. They also appear as masked dancers in cham, where they are read as reminders of impermanence.

See Chitipati pieces

Swift Tara奋迅度母

Swift Tara, one of the twenty-one forms of Tara

Like other forms of Tara she is painted as a youthful bodhisattva figure, seated on a lotus and moon disc, wearing silks, a five-leaf crown and jewellery. Colour and hand attributes differ between the painting traditions that transmit the twenty-one Taras, so in a set she is best identified from the individual image and its position.

Tara is traditionally invoked for protection from fear and danger. The twenty-one forms are recited together in the short praise that opens most Tara practice, and individual forms are customarily kept by practitioners of that liturgy.

See Swift Tara pieces

In the collection