Understanding the Depiction of Mandala Offerings for Wrathful and Peaceful Deities in Thangka Art
A thangka painting is much more than a decorated scroll in the rich Himalayan art, as it represents a recorded message (thang yig) or a visual prayer that guides the practitioner toward enlightenment. These masterpieces are the links between the ordinary and spiritual, and they apply the accurate iconography as a representation of the enlightened mind. The mandala offering is one of the deepest topics in thangka art that serves as a practice of a powerful spiritual technique used to stop mistaken appearances and provide causes of pure perception.
Two different worlds come to our mind when we look at these paintings: one, the gentle, luminous realms of peaceful deities, and the other, intense, visceral landscapes of wrathful deities. While both represent "furious compassion" and wisdom, the way offerings are depicted for them in terms of the five sense offerings (dod-yon sna-lnga) are different to a great degree in symbolic representation.
The Spiritual Mechanics: Why Are Offerings Made in Thangka Art?
In Thangka art, offerings are not depicted because enlightened beings like the Buddha require sustenance or material wealthbut rather it is a kind of powerful spiritual technique designed to transform the practitioner's mind. These visual representations of generosity serve as the linking point between art and spirituality, serving as a guide to enlightenment and a visual prayer.
There are several fundamental reasons why offerings are central to Thangka iconography:
Eliminating Attachment and Miserliness
The main aim of offering and representation of offering is to get rid of attachment and miserliness. By visualizing the offering of the entire universe, including one’s body, possessions, and virtues, the practitioner trains the mind to let go of material clinging. This practice helps in understanding the fact that everything in this world is empty of underlying existence.
Accumulating Merit and Good Karma
Offerings provide an opportunity for the practitioner to generate merit, which is described as the foundation and seed of spiritual development.
- Karmic Results: Offerings with good intent are described as the most effective way of overcoming future poverty and getting reborn into a Pure Land or a peaceful environment.
- Spiritual Efficiency: The sources suggest that one session of mandala offerings can be worth more than a week of striving to fix external problems, since it generates infinite reasons of pure appearances of the mind.
Transforming the Five Senses
Thangkas are frequently made to represent the dod-yon sna-linga (five sense offerings) to symbolize the transformation of human perception.
- Ordinary View: In an unenlightened state, the five senses are compared to "demons" because they seduce us into believing phenomena are solid and real, leading to neurotic reactions and suffering.
- Enlightened View: These senses are cleansed by the offering ceremony, which is known as the five celestial wisdoms or Dakinis. They are transformed into blissful expanses that are one with emptiness.
Visualizing the "Field of Merit"
The Thangka paintings are used as a guide to the visualization of the Field of Merit, a collection of enlightened beings in the sky. These beings receive inexplicably enormous masses of offerings made by practitioners in an attempt to arouse the senses, in a spiritual sense. This process involves "correct imagination," where the practitioner imagines that they are in a Pure Land filled with pure enjoyments.
Symbolism of Colors in Offerings
Colors, which are applied to these thangkas, are never just aesthetic; they emit certain spiritual vibrations:
- White: Transformation of ignorance into purity and peace (common in peaceful offerings).
- Red: Strength, passion, and the "blazing of inner psychic heat" (common in wrathful contexts).
- Blue: Protection, vastness, and unshakable wisdom (the color of the Medicine Buddha).
- Yellow/Gold: Abundance and the "glow of enlightenment".
- Green: Action and the balance of compassion and knowledge.
The Three Levels of Mandala Offerings
The sources describe three levels of offering that a thangka may represent:
- Ordinary Nirmanakaya Mandala: Offering the physical universe (the billion worlds).
- Ordinary Nirmanakaya Mandala: Offering the "highest heaven of great bliss" filled with goddesses and sensual stimulants.
- Special Dharmakaya Mandala: A "wisdom offering" where all appearances are recognized as the "youthful vase body" of reality itself, free from clinging.
Peaceful Deities: Offerings of Beauty and Delight
The internal qualities of the deities represented by many Peaceful deities include purity and knowledge, which are embodied by many Peaceful deities like Avalokiteshvara (the embodiment of compassion) or White Tara (symbol of longevity and healing). Their portrayal in thangkas is defined by the gentle colors, calm eyes, and exquisite items that provide the senses with the pleasure that is traditional and spiritually.
The Peaceful Five Sense Offerings ('dod-yon sna-lnga)
To honor these beings, the five senses are represented by beautiful, delightful objects:
- Sight: A mirror or silk fabric.
- Sound: A bell, a conch shell, or stringed musical instruments.
- Fragrance: Incense, nutmeg, or fragrant flowers.
- Taste: Fruit, sugar, or a sacrificial cake (gtor-ma).
- Touch: Silk fabric or soft garments.
In a peaceful thangka, you might see flowers symbolizing the beauty of the Dharma (and the impermanence of life) or oil lamps that symbolize the light of wisdom that illuminates the darkness of ignorance. The setting is commonly a Pure Land under a shower of pure gratifications and clouds of offerings to fire the senses in a blissful state.
Treasures of the Universe: The 37-Point Mandala Symbols
In Thangka art, the depiction of mandala offerings for peaceful deities utilizes a complex visual language known as the 37-point mandala offering, a tradition that was popularized by the master, Chogyal Phakpa. These offerings represent the most exquisite items on earth and the wealth of gods and human beings. With the help of visualizing and providing these treasures, a practitioner can acquire a powerful spiritual technology in order to get rid of attachment and consolidate the merit to enlighten.
The Seven Precious Possessions of a Monarch (or secondary emblems) are classified in the ordinary nirmanakaya mandala, as they are described bellow:
- Elephant Tusks and Unicorn’s Horn: These represent the "treasures of gods and men". In Himalayan art, these items signify strength, power, and the rarity of the Dharma. Specifically, offering such precious substances creates the cause to never suffer from future poverty and to obtain rebirth in a Pure Land.
- Queen's Round Earrings and King's Square Earrings: These are part of the "seven precious emblems of royalty". They symbolize sovereignty not over a worldly kingdom, but over one's own mind. In the context of a mandala, they represent the abundance of the nirmanakaya field and the practitioner's wish to "turn the wheel of Dharma" for all beings.
- Conch Shell: The conch shell is one of the eight auspicious symbols frequently depicted in Thangkas, representing the "far-reaching sound of religion". When used as a sense offering for peaceful deities, it may be filled with curds to please the sense of sight or used as a musical instrument to please the sense of sound.
- Flaming Gem and Multi-colored Gems: Gems in Thangka art radiate specific spiritual vibrations; gold and jewels specifically reflect the "glow of enlightenment" and "increased spiritual wealth". The Flaming Gem (or Wish-Fulfilling Jewel) symbolizes the indestructible nature of the mind and the ability of the Dharma to satisfy the spiritual needs of all sentient beings.
- Coral Offering: Like other precious minerals, coral is offered as a pure enjoyment to the Field of Merit. It represents the beauty of the natural world and the transformation of ordinary passion into discriminating awareness.
Wrathful Deities: The Alchemy of Transformation and Offerings of Furious Compassion
In Thangka art, the five senses offering for wrathful deities is a bodily and strong image of "furious kindness" intended to destroy spiritual obstacles. While the offerings for peaceful deities consist of beautiful items like mirrors and flowers, the offerings for wrathful deities, known as the dod-yon sna-lnga (five qualities of enjoyment), utilize a visual language to symbolize the transformation of ordinary perception.
Visual Composition: The Skull Cup
The foundation of a wrathful sense offering is a skull cup (kapala), which is typically shown balanced on a tripod of three human heads. Within this cup, the five senses are represented not by delightful objects, but by actual human organs. These are often arranged artistically as a "flower gift".
The Represented Senses
Each organ in the skull cup corresponds to a specific sense and its purification:
- Sight: Represented by eyes.
- Sound: Represented by ears.
- Smell: Represented by a nose.
- Taste: Represented by a tongue.
- Touch and Sensation: Represented by a heart or the entire body.
- The Sixth Sense: The sense of consciousness or intellect is also depicted, often symbolized by a silken arrow piercing the heart.
The visual representation is usually intense, featuring fresh crimson blood falling from the skull cup and flames radiating from the area around the skull. There is even a possibility of a black silk canopy, which symbolizes the power of the deity to destroy.
The Charnel Ground Setting
These offerings are frequently depicted in a charnel ground, a landscape scattered with corpses and human body parts. This scenery serves as a visual reminder of the impermanence, often communicating these truths in an astonishingly humorous or spiritual manner to wake the practitioner from the samsaric world.
Ritual Reality vs. Artistic Depiction
While the thangka paintings and scriptures describe these as human organs, the items used in physical Buddhist rituals are molds produced from barley flour and butter (tormas). These are accurately colored and shaped to resemble the organs while remaining purely symbolic in nature.
Philosophical and Symbolic Meaning
The purpose of these intense offerings is identical to that of peaceful ones: to act as an homage and worship that accumulates merit and leads the practitioner toward Nirvana.
- From "Demons" to "Dakinis": In their unenlightened state, the five senses are described as "demons" because they trick us into believing that phenomena are solid and real, leading to neurotic reactions.
- Dissolving into Emptiness: By visualizing the offering of these organs, the practitioner allows the senses to "dissolve into the sphere of truth, which is emptiness.
- Celestial Wisdom: Once purified, these senses are recognized as the five celestial wisdoms or the five primordial Dakinis. They are seen as "blissful expanses" that are completely one with emptiness and act as messengers for miraculous activity to benefit beings.
Conclusion: Different Forms, One Destination
The differences in mandala offerings for wrathful or peaceful deities in the thangka art are a reflection of the variety of human experience. For some, the path to wisdom is paved with beauty, serenity, and the "most exquisite items on earth". For others, the path requires a scandalous transformation of the ego and the senses to gain the freedom of mind.
However, the two types of thangka art end up having the same goal of guiding the artist to the same truth, which is that the real Pure Land consists of the state of bliss and emptiness. The mandala offering is a map to help the mind wake up out of the dream of samsara, which is represented either as a garden of lotuses or a charnel ground of skulls.