Mandala of Red Yamari

The central deity of this five-deity mandala is Red Yamari, the enemy of death, embracing his consort Vajravetali. The wrathful male deity brandishes a skull club and holds a skull cup. The couple is surrounded by four pairs of deities. The male deity in each group is in the color of his respective quarter of the mandala. The intermediate directions are occupied by vases topped by skull cups.The transmission lineage in the top row is inscribed and terminates with the teacher Kunga Lekpa in the top-right corner. Kunga Lekpa, active around 1415 to 1435 in the Kyirong area of Tibet, is also represented as the patron-practitioner (yon bdag) of this painting in the bottom-left corner. The back of the painting contains a dedicatory inscription stating, “This was commissioned as an object for his personal practice by Changphukpa Lama Kunga Lekpa,” provides the context for the creation of this painting.This mandala is largely inspired by Nepalese art, but features the color scheme, bold outlining, and three-lobed arches characteristic of fifteenth-century Tibetan art. Green rivals red as the dominant color, and it is used for many elements of the mandala, including the scrolling lotus stems and the background of the top and bottom rows. The bold black outlines used on each side of the mandala doors and around the tops of the arches in the top and bottom rows help create a sense of depth. Those arches were popular in the art of Gyantse in Tsang Province, southern-central Tibet, to which this painting relates.