Cleveland Museum of Art

Portable Shrine

Date

c. 1500

Medium

wood with mineral pigments and metal

Culture

Tibet

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Carved from a solid section of a log, the shrine contains images of protectors of tantric Buddhism—a branch that developed in northern India and became prominent in the Himalayas by the 700s. The central figure in the top row is Padmasambhava (Indian, active in Tibet in the 740s), venerated as the founder of one of the four main Tibetan monastic orders. Incised on the exterior are images of protectors, mantras written in Tibetan script, and a sacred funerary monument called a stupa. Tantric practice emphasizes recitation of mantras that invoke the powers of compassion, wisdom, and protection. Tantric practice can be performed alone in any location; this shrine could be used by a traveling practitioner for meditation, visualization, prayer, and recitation of mantras.

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