Offerings to the Goddess Palden Lhamo
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Download or edit the free picture Offerings to the Goddess Palden Lhamo for GIMP online editor. It is an image that is valid for other graphic or photo editors in OffiDocs such as Inkscape online and OpenOffice Draw online or LibreOffice online by OffiDocs.
Palden Lhamo is the principal protectress of Tibet and the only female of the Eight Guardians of the Dharma. Together with the companion black-ground (Tibetan: nag thang) painting on this wall, this work would have been installed in the chapel (gonkhang) dedicated to the wrathful protective deities (dharmapalas), a room reserved for tantric initiation rites within a Tibetan monastery. The exceptional scale and complexity of the composition relate the painting to the offering-scene murals known as "sets of ornaments" (Tibetan: rgyan tshogs) that adorn the interiors of shrines dedicated to the dharmapalas. It differs in the fact that it represents an actual deity rather than a disembodied presence, though it seems to serve a similar function. At the center, the wrathful four-armed goddess Palden Lhamo is shown riding her mule. She is one of the dharmapalas and is commonly depicted as a fear-inspiring, emaciated female of terrifying aspect. She wears a necklace of severed heads, holds a skull cup (kapala) brimming with blood, and is surrounded by a flame mandala that emanates from her being. Depicted against the black background are musical instruments and ritual utensils of all types intended as offerings to the deity. The upper register is framed by a curtain of flayed human skins and organs. Beneath Palden Lhamo is a register depicting auspicious Buddhist symbols and, below them, the seven attributes of a chakravartin (Universal Ruler): a wheel, a wish-fulfilling jewel, a perfect minister, a wife, a horse, an elephant, and a general.Free picture Offerings to the Goddess Palden Lhamo integrated with the OffiDocs web apps
