TIBET OR CHINA, 18TH CENTURY

This large and impressive painting depicts Chaturmukha Mahakala, the four-faced form of the deity associated with the Guhyasamaja tantra. Wrathful in appearance, the central deity holds a curved knife and kapala in his primary hands and a sword and spear in his raised hands. He is surrounded by the four attendant dakinis - Dombini, Chandali, Rakshasi and Singhali Devi, all depicted with different colored skin. At top center, a naga-hooded buddha sits on a lotus base with his left hand extended, and at bottom, a dark-skinned brahmin sits holding a shin-bone trumpet to his lips and a skull cup in his left hand. The latter, known as Brahmanarupa Mahakala, is another form of Chaturmukha Mahakala, intended to be a more palatable and less secretive version of the main deity: according to tradition, when the great translator, Nyen Lotsawa received the Manjuvajra Guhyasamaja teachings from the dakini, Risula, she also passed on to him the lessons of Chaturmukha Mahakala in the form of a dark-skinned brahmin, as the main form of Chaturmukha Mahakala was supposed to remain secret to all but the most practiced in the tradition.
The present painting stylistically resembles paintings created in and around Beijing in the late eighteenth century, when the Gelug sect was the dominant form of Buddhism practiced in the Qing court. The red sun and white moon in the sky, the multicolored billowing clouds, and the rich greens and blues of the landscape are all characteristic of the Beijing style.