The Buddhist deity Mahakala

Studded with dazzling gold ornaments, Mahakala’s dark form emerges from the ghostly glow of a flayed elephant skin stretched behind his back and an elephant-headed figure trampled below his feet. Six-Armed Mahakala is a wrathful manifestation of Avalokiteshvara; the rosary of human skulls in his upper right hand is a terrifying transmutation of the bodhisattva of compassion’s crystal meditation beads. Around his pedestal, in flame-filled corpse grounds, are five members of his entourage, and he appears in two additional forms at the bottom. Among the lineage figures at the painting’s top is a lama of the Gelug order, whose teachings are protected by Six-Armed Mahakala.