Rahula and his Assembly

Rahula, shown at the center of a fifteen-deity assembly, is a wrathful protector of the “Revealed Treasure Tradition” of the Nyingma School that was eventually practiced in other Tibetan Buddhist traditions as well. The upper area of the painting illustrates the teaching transmission. At the top center is a triad of Buddha Shakyamuni, Padmsambhava, and Vajrapani, the deity from which the Rahula practice this painting is dedicated to derives. The four teachers flanking the triad are, from left to right, the treasure revealers Padma Ledreltsal (b. 1248), Gya Zhangdrom, Ngagi Wangpo (1580–1639), and the Tenth Situ, Padma Kunzang (1854–1885).