Buddha Sakyamuni and Scenes from His Life

This thangka depicts the life of the Sakyamuni Buddha, for example, the central section on the right shows Gautama, the Buddha, after his six years of ascetic practices; his body is very weak and he washes the grime from his body in the Nairanjana river and takes gruel and milk offerred to him by a herdswoman; his body is restored and he achieves enlightenment under the pippala tree. Beneath the main figure are his ten leading disciples. The Buddha sits cross-legged on a Dharma throne with the six votive objects, the seat of the highest Buddha. The six emblems are: in the centre the Kapindula (Kapinjila) bird (garuda); below (on both the left and right) a dragon with a human upper torso and the lower torso of a snake; an enormous turtle in the sea; the handsome youth Adonis, a unicorn; and an elephant. The six emblems represent the six paramitas (Tibetan: phar phyin, virtues or perfections of the Bodhisattva's path), which are, charity (Sanskrit: dana), morality (sila), patience (kshanti), industry ( virya), meditation (dhyana) and wisdom (prajna).