Cultural relics are auctioned and ancient treasures are appreciated
Thangka is a unique painting art in the snowy plateau, especially the Thangka of Tibetan Buddhist content, which is the crystallization of the fusion of Buddhist wisdom and compassion, whether it is the color of Yali, or the flexible lines, or the solemn composition, all of which represent the harmony and ease of practice.
▲ Forbidden City # Sumire Fushou # exhibition · Siku Quan Uncle photographed
Today I would like to introduce you to a painting of the Cloth Set Se Sheng Le Vajra Thangka, which is a tribute made by the Sixth Panchen Erdeni at the Chengde Summer Resort on the seventh day of the first month of August in the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1780 AD), which was made by the TashjiCai Workshop of Tashilhunpo Monastery and is now in the Palace Museum.
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka Siku full uncle shooting
Shengle Vajrayogini, also known as Shangle Vajrayogini or Shangle King Buddha, in the supreme tantra, Shangle Vajrayogini is mainly based on the cultivation of wisdom, which is consistent with the goal of the Buddha's mother's practice, so it belongs to the mother-to-continue Buddha-figure. Kagyu Vajrayogini is one of the Buddha-figures of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Kagyu, Sakya, Nyingma and Gelug, and is one of the three Buddha-figures of the Gelug school.
▲ Cloth set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (partial) · Siku Quan Uncle photographed
Shengle is the transition stage from the dense to the kalachakra, the status is very important, for the billions of empty lines, is the representative of the total collection of merits of the Buddhas, so it is called the total collection wheel, known as the three Buddhas of the Vajrayogini, language, and intention of the king, so he is also revered in the mother continuum as the king of the mother continuum.
▲ Cloth set color ShengLe King Kong Thangka (partial) · Siku Quan Uncle shoot
This statue has four sides of blue, yellow, red and green, wearing a skull crown on its head, wearing white bone ornaments, holding a vajra pestle and a vajra bell in both arms and embracing the red Vajrayogini. The great achiever with a brown body on the left above thangka is Ruypa, in the upper right corner is the blue Vajrapani Bodhisattva, and below the picture is the four-armed protector.
The most impressive thing in the Vajrayogini statue is that it is multi-faceted and multi-armed, holding various magic tools, of which the right hand represents "method" and the left hand represents "wisdom", now let's understand these magic tools and the meaning they represent.
▲ Cloth set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (partial) · Siku Quanshu photography
First of all, let's talk about the main arms of the Katsura Vajrapani, the right hand holds the tantric vajra pestle, and the left hand holds the tantric vajra bell. The vajra pestle has the meaning of indestructible and unshakeable, representing the perfection and method of Buddha-nature. It is said that the vajra pestle is twelve fingers long and can eliminate the twelve causes. The Vajra bell, also known as the Dharma Bell, represents the feminine nature of pranayama, symbolizing emptiness and wisdom. The two often go hand in hand, symbolizing the union of wisdom and method, or the union of emptiness and convenience.
▲ Cloth ben set color Katsurakusa Thangka (main arm hands) Siku Quanshu photography
In the remaining ten hands (I numbered them separately for the sake of writing), the right and left hands held a whole sheet of freshly peeled elephant skins! Yes, you read that right, it's the skin of an elephant. Before being tamed, the elephant is grumpy, easily disturbed by the outside world and jumps like a thunderbolt, unable to control itself, symbolizing foolishness.
▲ Cloth set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (right 1 hand and left 1 hand) Siku Quan Uncle photographed
This elephant skin represents that KatsuraKuman "tore the elephant's ignorance into pieces", reflecting the instant birth and death of the world, and together with the human head vine and the tiger skin skirt on his body, he showed us the "three poisons" of greed, anger and delusion.
The right 2 holds a plate axe, which is a combination of two half-cut vajra pestles and a knife, which is both a cutting tool and a weapon for combat. The right hand, which represents the "method", holds a plate axe, representing the ability to cut off life and death, and to cut off all false views and attachments in the mind.
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (right 2 hands) Siku Quan Uncle shoot
The right 3 hand holds the tantric magic instrument, which is composed of a blue arc-pointed knife body, a golden Capricorn swallow and a golden half-cut vajra pestle, which can be slashed, scraped, hooked and other slashing actions, representing the method of comparing the method to the elimination of all concepts.
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (right 3 hands) Siku Quan Uncle shoot
The right 4 hand holds a three-stranded fork, and the most significant feature of this weapon is that the fork head is three teeth, which mainly symbolizes the trinity of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in Buddhism, and also refers to the trinity of the master, Buddha-figure and empty mother in Vajrayana, as well as the three combinations of body, language and mind.
▲ Cloth set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (right 4 hands) · Siku Quan Uncle Photography
The fifth hand on the right holds the tantric dharma vessel Dharmaru, which is a hand-held small drum made of the two skulls of young boys and girls, connected together by a semicircular vault, and covered with sheepskin or snakeskin or fish skin as a drum. Its function is to summon all Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and empty mothers, and shaking the Dharmaru symbolizes the combination of method and wisdom.
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (right 5 hands) Siku Quan Uncle photography
In the left 2 hand, he holds the Jamhabala Bowl, also known as the "Cranial Bowl", which is a bowl made of human skulls, derived from the human heads of Buddhas and great masters. Holding a Gabala bowl with the left hand of "wisdom", which contains blood and organs for God's consumption, symbolizes the red bodhichitta dew, representing the god's heart (white skull bowl) and the inner happiness (red blood), that is, the "phantom body" (white skull bowl) is generated from the "light" (red blood).
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (left 2 hands) · Siku Quan Uncle photographed
The left 3 hand holds a weapon lasso, the hand is in the form of a period seal, the lasso from the fingertip outward, the two ends are a half-cut vajra pestle head and an iron ring, which can be used as a tool for catching and binding. It represents locking, binding, and strangling one's foolish mind, that is, the three things in Buddhism: precepts, concentration, and wisdom.
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (left 3 hands) · Siku Quan Uncle photographed
The left 4 holds the offering, the head of Brahma, the god of creation in India, with five heads, one facing upwards and four facing in all directions. In the painting, brahma's hair is pulled up with his hands, four yellow faces, a heavenly crown is worn, and his earlobes are rounded, symbolizing the action of breaking all conceptualizations, and also representing the "four immeasurable hearts" of compassion, compassion, joy and devotion.
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (left 4 hands) · Four Ku Quan Uncle shoot
The fifth hand on the left holds the Tantric Instrument Celestial Staff, one of the most emblematic artifacts in Vajrayana Buddhism. From top to bottom, it consists of a golden vajra pestle, a white skull, a red bloody human head, a blue rotten human head, a half-cut vase, a treasure vase, a long white pole, and so on. The most striking thing about the scepter is the three heads strung together, which, as an inner symbolism, mainly represents the cessation of the three poisons, the white head represents the lifeless foolishness, the red head represents the surging desire, and the blue head represents the cold evil.
▲ Bu Ben set color Katsura King Kong Thangka (left 5 hands) · Four Ku Quan Uncle Shoot
Illustrations of Symbols and Artifacts of Tibetan Buddhism
Exhibition description
The photos in the article are all taken by the author Siku Quan uncle.