Cleveland Museum of Art

Tantric Buddha Vairochana as Vajrasattva

Date

c. 1150–1200

Medium

gum tempera, ink, and gold on cloth

Culture

Central Tibet

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The seated Buddha dominating the composition is identified as Vairochana because of his hand gesture, the mudra communicating supreme enlightenment in which the index finger of one hand is grasped by the fingers of the opposite hand. His golden color and the tiny vajra —a six-pronged ritual object representing a thunderbolt—balanced on top of his finger suggest that he is in the guise of Vajrasattva, the summation of all enlightened beings. In his crown is the image of a monk, who is probably the guru of the donor, the small monastic figure at the lower right next to the lotus pedestal. A mantra written behind the figures invokes their living presence in the thangka painting.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.