The Buddha Shakyamuni with lamas

At the center of this painting, the historical Buddha Shakyamuni touches the earth at the very moment of his enlightenment (bodhi). The profusion of smaller figures, from monks to fierce deities, can seem visually overwhelming, but Himalayan Buddhists understand them all as aspects of enlightened awareness.

Above Shakyamuni, a lineage of teachers stretches back to the blue Buddha at the top center. His name is Samantabhadra (“Omnidirectional Goodwill”), the primordial figure understood by some schools as the original Buddha. Buddhist teachers appear on either side of the painting; the ones nearer the top, dressed in lighter Indian garb, are adepts (siddha) who helped introduce esoteric Buddhism into the Himalayas.

The three main fierce Buddha-forms visualized in the Himalayas appear here as well; they include Vajrabhairava directly beneath the Buddha, Guhyasamaja on the left, and Chakrasamvara on the right. These three fierce deities comprise a combined male-and-female figure called yab-yum or father-mother in Tibetan. By visualizing such deities, Buddhist meditators come rapidly to understand how seeming opposites are actually part of a continuum.