Eight Mahasiddhas

This is the last painting of an eleven-painting set from Palpung monastery and dedicated to “The Eighty-four Great Tantric Adepts (Mahasiddhas). Especially interesting is the figure of the great adept Putalipa at top center, seated in a cave and gazing at an image of the meditational deity Samvara. The scene offers a view of a tantric Buddhist icon in use. Above in the sky are the white bodhisattva Samantabhadra and, below him, small, red wrathful figure Cakhavartin. The other figures can be identified as: the bodhisattva Samantabhadra; Darikapa; Putalipa; Upanaha; Kokilipa; Anangapa; Lakshmikara; Samudra; Vyalipa.