Banner Depicting "Invisible" Deities (Primary Title)
Crossing into the meditative world of the mandala, we enter a landscape populated by wrathful deities. Despite their menacing appearance, these enlightened beings are allies, enemies only to obstacles hindering one’s spiritual progress. This painted banner, which must have once hung on the walls of a Gelug monastery, depicts eight such deities in an unusual way. Their garments and jewelry are arranged on lotus thrones or, in one case, on a wild mule. Around those trappings, as if manifesting from deep-blue emptiness, their many ceremonial attributes appear. Curiously, the deities’ bodies are missing.
Like the other deities on this banner, Yama Dharmaraja is represented only by his many trappings, all carefully arranged as if adorning his invisible body. The positions of his bone anklets trace his aggressive stance: right leg bent, left leg extended to the side. Likewise, his arm ornaments reach to a bone staff on his right and to a lasso on his left. Severed heads strung on a massive garland glare, while a serpent writhes around the vajra that tops his skull-studded, jewel-dripping crown. A second crown, to his left, belongs to his consort Yami, whose unseen shoulders are draped with a freshly flayed animal hide. The flaming trident near the lasso and the huge brimming skull cup at Yama Dharmaraja’s chest are also hers.
"Dieux et demons de l' Himalaya: Art du Bouddhisme lamaique." Grand
Palais, Paris, 25 March - 27 June 1977, no. 192.
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