Tantric Buddha Vairochana as Vajrasattva (c. 1150–1200): Art, History and Details

Tantric Buddha Vairochana as Vajrasattva (c. 1150–1200) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Tantric Buddha Vairochana as Vajrasattva
• Date: c. 1150–1200
• Culture: Central Tibet
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on cloth
• Dimensions: Overall: 111 x 73 cm (43 11/16 x 28 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Tibetan Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1989.104

A detail from the museum

A mantra written behind the figures invokes their living presence in the thangka painting.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Czuma, Stanislaw J. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63–147.
• Bly, Linda. An Important 12th Century Tibetan Thanka in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1991.
• “Recent Acquisitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art II: Departments of Asian Art: Supplement.” The Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1059 (June 1991): 417–424.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.