When I was in India in the 1980s I met a group of Tibetan refugees who had come to the hill station where I lived to to sell some of their wares which mostly consisted of woollen items for which there wasn't much call in the south of India, even up in the hills. But they also had some pictures of Tibetan deities which were block printed on rice paper, and I bought five of these. The pictures were simple line drawings and I passed a few evenings colouring them in with watercolours which is the sort of thing you do when you live in a place with no TV and have to make your own entertainment.
I found these pictures which I'd forgotten all about at the bottom of a drawer the other day, and so thought I might put them up here.
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| This is Manjushri holding the sword that cuts away ignorance. He is associated with prajna or transcendent wisdom. His lion, which symbolises the mind he has tamed, is normally painted blue so I hope he'll forgive my ignorance. |
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| This is the historical Buddha called Siddhartha or Sakyamuni meaning the sage of the Shakyas which was his clan in the India/Nepal border area. |
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| I'm not sure who this is. It could be Tara, a female Buddha, or else a dakini which is a kind of divine sky nymph. |
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| This could be the deity called Marici, the goddess of the dawn. |
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| This one could be Namgyalma who is a deity for long life and healing. |
Probably the two most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism, other than historical gurus, are Avalokiteshvara who is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and Maitreya who is the future Buddha. I didn't have pictures of them so here they are to show how it should be done.
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