The lama Buton Rinchen Drup,

Iridescent halo shimmering behind him, the lama Buton Rinchen Drub smiles out from deep empty darkness. In the fourteenth century, Buton organized the Buddhist canon into scripture and commentary, called respectively Kanjur and Tenjur. He also established guidelines for creating mandalas that inform the tradition to this day. Buton was an inclusive thinker who drew ideas from many meditative and artistic traditions. Lamas from across the spectrum of Tibetan Buddhist orders are arrayed along each side of his throne, each one playing a part in Buton's teaching system. This painting is stylistically inclusive, incorporating elements of Tibetan and Chinese traditions in fine balance.

On the reverse of the thangka, Buton's ghostly shadow hovers between two golden handprints. These anonymous hands likely penned the veritable Rosetta stone of Buddhist sacred script that appears below them; here, the standard Buddhist consecration phrase appears in four different forms. It reads "the Buddha has explained the cause of all things that arise from a cause. He, the Great Monk, has also explained their cessation." This phrase transforms the object on which it is inscribed into a virtual stupa, thus simultaneously preserving and transmitting the power it contains. The calligraphy of the anonymous lama appears in four different scripts: the formal Lantsa, the flowing Siddham, standard Tibetan Uchan ("with heads") script, and cursive Tibetan Umey ("without heads") script.