the tibetan himalayan style 131
Shortly after the founding of Tabo, the maṇḍalas of the Yoga tantra class,
compiled in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, became the most important
source for the art of West Tibet. In the maṇḍalas of this class the pan-Indian
deities are placed on the outside of or within the outermost circle. Their
purpose is mainly protection and also to offer an accessible introduction to
the sacred space of the temple for newly converted Buddhist practitioners,
as explained below. Corresponding to the placement of the deities in the
outer spheres of a maṇḍala, they are depicted in the entry hall of the tem-
ple. In the popular myth of the subjugation of Rudra these deities were in his
retinue, then underwent purification and became mundane (Skt. laukika)
gods of the Buddhist pantheon.22 At the boundaries, their function is the pro-
tection of dharma with the prospect of gaining perfection in order to rise up
to the higher transcendent (Skt. lokottara) realm, which is the realm of the
Buddhas and bodhisattvas.23 In the Tabo entry hall they represent the tran-
sition zone of the temple, which prepares the worshippers coming from
the human sphere for the entrance into the higher transcendent realms.
According to Tucci, these deities serve as the initial teachers for the newly con-
verted Buddhist practitioner, as they are familiar to him from his old religion.24
The beliefs and deities of a Buddhist practitioner, who originally comes from a
divine figures.” (Kapstein, “Between Na Rak and a Hard Place”, 172). For a discussion
and contextualisation of the Sarvadurgatipariśodhanatantra among the Dunhuang
manuscripts see also the chapter by Henrik H. Sørensen in this volume. Tibetan dhāraṇī
collections found in Dunhuang often contain the prayer “Invitation to the Great Gods
and nāgas” (also known in Tibetan as rgyud gsum pa), which was popular in early Tibet.
These deities are also present in the Tibetan tradition. Nebesky-Wojkowitz mentions
a tradition held up by Tibetan priests describing the “75 mgon po” not as 75 forms of
Mahākāla but consisting of pan-Indian deities, which we also find in Tabo (although only
67 of these deities). (Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René de, Oracles and Demons of Tibet. The Cult
and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities (’s-Gravenhage: Mouton, 1956), 265. To
summarise, there have been various versions of the Eight Great Gods and Eight Great
nāgas and other constellations in use, which makes it difficult to fully identify the early
painted version of Tabo.
22 For a translation and explanation of one of these texts see Dalton, The Taming of the
Demons, 159–206.
23 David Seyfort Ruegg describes in his extensive study on this topic the forms and functions
of these deities that he ascribes to the substratum of Buddhism. See Seyfort Ruegg, David,
The Symbiosis of Buddhism with Brahmanism/Hinduism in South Asia and of Buddhism
with “Local Cults” in Tibet and the Himalayan Region (Vienna: Austrian Academy of
Sciences, 2008): viii.
24 Tucci, Giuseppe, The Theory and Practice of the maṇḍala with Special Reference to the
Modern Psychology of the Subconscious, fourth edition (London: Rider, 1974), 82–83.