The Medicine Buddha, Bhaishajyaguru

Early Buddhist texts often refer to the historical Buddha Shakyamuni as a doctor (vaidya) who diagnoses ordinary existence (samsara) as a disease and prescribes enlightenment (nirvana) as the proper medicine (bhaishajya). Like Shakyamuni, the Buddha at the center of this painting is also a doctor, but his blue color indicates that this is not Shakyamuni. Instead, he is Bhaishajyaguru-Vaidyaraja, “the Royal Doctor, the Master of Medicine.” He is the Buddha who specializes in the healing of physical disease.

Here, Bhaishajyaguru sits at the center of a multitiered palace. At the bottom of the painting is a door in the palace wall where a guardian plays a lute. In his extended right hand, Bhaishajyaguru holds a myrobalan fruit—Indian symbol of a powerful cure-all or panacea. The three Buddhas visible above Bhaishajyaguru and the two in each pillar make a group of eight healing Buddhas who commonly appear in Tibetan paintings of this type.