Description
1,000 armed Avalokiteshvara Mandala
About Our Thangka :
We have had this Thangka in our collection for over 20 years now. Our Thangka was stored away for several years. We were thrilled to discover the quality and depth of these beautiful thangkas when we unveiled them and decided to showcase them online for everyone.
Introduction to 1,000 armed Avalokiteshvara Mandala
Lokeshvara wears all the ornaments: earrings, bracelets, and so forth. He also wears an antelope skin on his shoulders and carries various weapons in his hands. Lokeshvara is a cosmic form of Avalokiteswara and is represented by eleven heads and one thousand arms. He is adorned with all the six jewels and isdressed in a monastic robe.
Lokeshvara is also the spiritual father of White Tara and Green Tara, who were said to be formed from his two drops of tears when he saw the pain and suffering in the sentient beings. They are all boddhisattvas (liberators of the sentient beings from pain and suffering ) with very prominent spots among the Tibetan Deities.
A bodhisattva decides not to enter nirvana at death so that he can aid the sufferings of the world. He is the essence of compassion. Avalokitesvara has many forms - but here, he has 1,000 arms to help many people at once. Each hand has an eye that looks down compassionately on the world.
To invoke his help, say the mantra “om mani Padme hum.” You see this mantra painted everywhere you go in Tibet, where he is called Chenrezig.
He has ten faces representing the fact that he has mastered all ten bodhisattva stages, and each face represents an attitude dominant at a particular stage. Three of the faces are loving, three are peaceful, and four are fierce. Love wears many faces: sometimes fierce, like a mother protecting her child, sometimes scolding, when she reprimands, and other times love sweet and soft and given with a kiss.
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Size: 11"/ 28 cm (width) x 11"/ 28 cm (height)
Materials: Cotton Canvas, Acrylic Colors, Genuine 24K Gold
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THIS THANGKA IS HAND-PAINTED IN THE TRADITIONAL STYLE, AND THE QUALITY IS HIGH
How does Thangka help us?
Historically used as a teaching aid, thangkas are used as a meditation tool to help bring one further down the path to enlightenment. Devotional images act as the centerpiece during a ritual or ceremony and are often used as mediums through which one can offer prayers or make requests.