A thangka depicting a mandala of Shri Devi, West Tibet, 14th century

Acquired in the early 1990s.

This extremely rare 14th century painting, among the earliest recorded Nyingma paintings from Western Tibet, depicts Shri Devi, the principal consort of the protector Mahakala and the only female protector deity of the Buddhist faith, alongside two figures of Chemchog Heruka, the deities who guide the consciousness of the deceased through the regions of the afterlife. She is a popular subject in the Western Himalayas. As Giuseppe Tucci explores in Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Rome, 1949, vol. 2, pp 590-94, while Shri Devi served as a protector of the Buddhist faith, she was also associated with Bon deities, including those connected with the creation and suppression of disease. She frequently appears as a subsidiary protector goddess in early paintings, but is very rarely seen as the principle subject.

Shri Devi is depicted seated on her mule, the front hoof raised, taut with energy, holding a three pennant flag in her right arm high above her head, the left hand holding a skull cap. A lion can be seen emerging from her right earring, and what appears to be a snake on her left earring. A sack can be seen under her left arm, containing jewels or possibly diseases. The protector goddess wears a flayed human skin cape over the shoulders tied by an arm and leg, a garland of severed heads and a tiger-skin loin cloth, and is adorned with gold and human bone jewelry, a peacock feather and crescent moon headdress, with a snow lion and a serpent appearing from behind the ears. The deity rides side-saddle, atop a mule draped with serpents, talismans, and the flayed skin of her son, striding across a sea of blood led by Shri Devi’s attendant Makaramukha and followed by the lion-faced Simhamukha.

On the register above are depicted two ferocious figures of Mahakala Heruka. The top register depicts figures including Vajradhara, Vairocana, Amoghasiddhi, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, Vajrapani, a Dakini, Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal. The next register depicts Shakyamuni Buddha and Padmasambhava, identifying the painting as from the Nyingma school. The bird-headed and lion-headed figures below the third register, are extremely unusual retinue figures. These possibly derive from Bon iconography. There is a profusion of monks and lay figures, and additional fantastic animal-headed register figures. The donor figure on the bottom right, possibly a Kashmiri, is depicted in Central Asian clothing, a male wearing a white robe and turban.

The reverse with a large early inscribed stupa containing a great number of inscriptions including most commonly, 20 reading Oṃ Ᾱh Hūṃ which are usually placed behind the three major psychic power places on the various deity’s body at the head, heart and solar plexus.

All of these 20 visible mantras are vertical in their orientation.

The inscription reads:

Om shri heruka vajra krodhishvaristi hum ha he phat mama yogini rulu rulu hum bhyoh hum.

Om ye dharma hetu prabhava hetum tesham tathagato hyavadat tesham cha yo nirodha evam vadi maha shramana svaha.

('Patience for hardships is noble patience, [Leading to] supreme liberation, the Buddha has said. With respect to others, Monks should do no harm or cause distress').

Om vajra rakmo yakmo nying kha rakmo bhyoh. kha mu khra ba ragsha ma bhyoh.

Om a hum..,

In the Bumpa (the bulbous part of the stupa), the inscription reads:

Na mo pad ma gu ru … si ti hūṃ

It translates as – ‘Homage to the Lotus Guru…may enlightenment come - hūṃ.’

(It should be noted that this is a version of the more common mantra for Padmasambhava which reads:

Oṃ āh hūṃ vajra guru padma siddhi hūṃ)

In the top two smaller steps, we see the extended mantra for the deity:

Oṃ Śrī Heruka Vajra krodhe shwa ra sto huṃ ha he phaṭ ma ma yo ki ni ru lu ru lu Bhyo hūṃ

This can be translated as– 'Mightiest of the Wrathful Vajra Beings' – then follow mantra sounds  - Bhyo hūṃ’

The final syllables Bhyo hūṃ ‘seal’ the mantra and the deity against any outside evil influences. Of interest is that the mantra ‘Oṃ ru lu ru lu hūṃ bhyo hūṃ’ also is the mantra used to evoke the 58 wrathful Heruka deities encountered in the after death realm known as the Bardo.

In the next three steps down we see two separate Buddhist texts.

The first reads (in Tibetan): Ye dha rma  he tu pra bhā wā /he tuṃ te shaṃ thā ga ta hya wa da ta/ de shaṃ tsa yo ni rodha/ E waṃ wā dī Ma hā shra ma ṇa Svā Hā//

‘This can be translated as 'All phenomena arise from a cause. Those causes have been taught by the Tathāgata Buddha. The Great Ascetic – the Buddha – has also taught about their cessation. Svā Hā’

The second insription, considered to be the basis for Buddhist monastic life, is commonly found inscribed on early paintings:  

bZod pa dka’ thub dam pa bzod pa ni |

mya ngan ’das pa mchog ces sangs rgyas gsung || rab tu byung ba gzhan la gnod pa dang ||

gzhan la ’tshe ba dge’ sbyong ma yin no ||

This can be translated as ‘It is taught in that the monk who practices austerities and remains calm will (certainly) attain the state of nirvāṇa. One who is an ordained monk and who injures others or torments them is not a monk at all.’

On the square-shaped plinth we see a single mantra which is intersected by a vertical Oṃ Ᾱh Hūṃ.

This mantra may explain something about the theme of mules (referred to above)

The manta reads: Oṃ badzra rag mo yag mo snying kha rag mo  bhyo/ kha mu kha ba ra gsha ma bhyo//

‘Oṃ vajra female mule with the heart of a female yak - you O female mule with your powerful jaws – you are a female demonic protectress …Bhyo! 

For another 14th century depiction of Shri Devi from West Tibet, similarly depicted riding a mule on the top register of a thangka in the Rubin Museum of Art, (acc. no. C2003.1.1), illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 65171. The thangka has similar three pennant flags to the current image, a characteristic of West Tibet in the 14th century.

See also a 14th century thangka of Shri Devi from Central Tibet in the Pritzker collection, included in the exhibition Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1998, cat. no. 31. Shri Devi is illustrated as a much larger central figure than in the current painting, and is only surrounded by one register of figures, and is depicted brandishing a sword.