Blue lotus protective triangle. Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter.

In the centre of the painting is a black triangle surrounded by flames. The apex of the triangle is at the bottom, pointing downward in the manner of a phur pa (ritual dagger) used for fighting demons. The triangle may represent the triangular hearth (Tibetan thab khun or hearth hole) used in the 'burnt offering' ceremony (Sanskrit homa, Tibetan sbyin sreg). There are four kinds of burnt offering: pacification, enrichment, subjugation and wrath. For each type the hearth has a different shape, and in the case of the burnt offerings of wrath, it is triangular. Within the triangle is a sixteen-leaved blue lotus with the syllable hriḥ written in golden letters in rañjanī (lantsa) script on the eight inner leaves. The centre contains the syllable om

Above the triangle with the lotus there are three birds: a garuda, a golden eagle and a black eagle. Below the triangle there are four animals: a white lion with a dark blue mane, a wolf, a female monkey and a tiger. On each of the three sides there is a wild man. One is brandishing a scimitar, one a chopper and a scimitar, and one an elephant hook. The hand and scimitar-tip emerging in the top left hand corner of the triangle suggest another wild man hidden behind the triangle

[Tibet]

1 painting : distemper on linen ; linen 25 x 20 cm

Marianne Winder, Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and catalogue of thankas, banners and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London 1989, p. 80, thankas banners and paintings no. 13

Wellcome Collection 47086i