Mandala of Yamantaka Vajrabhairava
Central Asia, 15th - 16th century

An embroidered silk thangka, showing a central mandala, three deities at the top and three at the bottom. The thangka is framed in red and yellow brocade borders.

• The word mandala means ‘circle’ and comes from the Indian Sanskrit language. This mandala shows Yamantaka (also known as Vajrabhairava), as the central deity.1 Yamantaka-Vajrabhairavais a powerful protective deity who played an important role in Buddhist practice during the 14th and early 15th centuries. Yamantaka conquers Yama, the Lord of Death, and, by extension, transcends death. In some manifestations, he also embodies the powers of Vajrabhairava, who has the ability to spur destruction, and hence renewal. The deity at the centre of the mandala appears terrifying and wrathful He is dark blue in colour and has nine faces, 16 legs and 34 hands. The main face is that of a buffalo, with a red face above and the slightly angry yellow face of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of Wisdom, on top. This central figure sits in a blue circle with eight panels surrounding it, symbolizing the lotus flower. Each panel repeats the central image. The background represents the four corners of the Earth. The central roundel is framed by the walls of the palace with gates towards the four corners of the earth. The four outer circles represent protection: the purifying fire of wisdom, the vajra circle, the circle with the eight tombs and the lotus circle. At the top, the central figure represents the primordial Buddha Vajradhara, blue in colour, the holder of the vajra, the teaching Buddha in his tantric manifestation. On the right is Tsongkhapa, recorded as the founder of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, and regarded as a terrestrial emanation of Manjusri.2 In the top left hand corner sits mahasiddha Lalitavajra, who would be at the source of the tantric transmission of the cycle of Yamantaka. At the bottom in the centre is ajit mahakala (protector) flanked by the deities of direction: the blue Yamaraja to his left, and the red Yamaraja to his right. A comparable embroidered mandala is in the Metropolitan Museum New York.3

1 The Sanskrit name Yamantaka means 'the one who conquers Yama', the Lord of Death. The Sanskrit name Vajrabhairava means the Diamond-like Terrifier. Bhairava means "terrifying".
2 Geluk is the most recent of Tibet’s major monastic orders.
3 Watt, J.C.Y. and Wardwell, A.E. When Silk was Gold, Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, New York, 1997, page 95, no 25