Artwork Details

Title
Vairochana, from a Set of Initiation Cards (Tsakali)
Dimensions
6 × 4 3/8 in.
Medium
Pigments on paper
Origin
Tibet
Classification(s)
tsakali paintings
Date
ca. 14th century
Credit Line
Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Dr. David Nalin
Object number
C2011.7.7
Inscribed

Translations of Tsakali texts by Namgyal Nyima for David Nalin༄༔ ཧཱུཾ་ {རྣཾཪ་}རྣམ་པར་{སྣང ད་ ’ }སྣང་མཛད་{དེ༤ཨིན་}དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས༔ {སདྱས་}སངས་རྒྱས་དབྱིངས་ཕྱུག་{ཡུཾ་}ཡུམ་དང་སྦྱོར༔{༢ཨིསུཨེད་}གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པའི་{བྱིནླབས་}བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱིས༔ {རྡོཨེ་}རྡོ་རྗེ་སྐུའི་དབང་ཡང་སྦྱིན༔ བུད་དཧ་ཛཉ་ན་ཨ་བཧི་ཤིནཙ་ཡ༔ {རྣཾརང ད་ ’ }རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་{ཡུཾབ་}ཡབ་ཡུམ་{ཀྱིས་}གྱིས་{དབུཾར་}དབང་བསྐུར་བས༔{ཉོཨོངས་}ཉོན་མོངས་པ་{གཏུཨིག་}གཏི་མུག་{ནཡས་}གནས་སུ་དག་ནས༔ {ཆོསི་}ཆོས་ཀྱི་{དབྱིངསི་}དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་{ཡེཨེས་}ཡེ་ཤེས་{མཐྱིན་}མཐར་ཕྱིན་ཅིང་{ལྷྲིབ་}ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་སྟེ༔སྐུ་མི་ཟད་རྒྱན་གྱིས་{དངྲོབ་}དངོས་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ནས༔དཔལ་{རྣཾརང ད་ ’ }རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་དང་༔ {ཡུཾ་}ཡུམ་{སདྱས་}སངས་རྒྱས་དབྱིངས་ཕྱུག་མའི་དབང་ཐོབ་པར་གྱུར་((༡))༔hum rnam par snang mdzad de bzhin gshegs: sangs rgyas dbyings phyug yum dang sbyor: gnyis su med pa’i byin rlabs kyis: rdo rje sku’i dbang yang sbyin: bud dha dznya na a bhi shintsa ya: rnam par snang mdzad yab yum gyis dbang bskur bas: nyon mongs pa gti mug gnas su dag nas: chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes mthar phyin cing lhun gyis grub ste sku mi zad rgyan gyis dngos grub thob nas: dpal rnam par snang mdzad dang: yum sang rgyas dbyings phyug ma’i dbang thob par gyur cig.The syllable HUM represents the tathagata Vairochana in union with his consort, the buddha Dhatvishvari. The vajra body empowerment is conferred through the blessings of [the couple’s] non-duality. BHUD DHA DZNYA NA A BHI SHINTSA YA. Thus, by bestowing the empowerment of male-female Vairochana, the negative emotion of delusion is transmuted, the wisdom of the space of phenomenal reality is perfected and spontaneously accomplished, and the siddhi of the adornment of inexhaustible body is received. May the receiver [also] obtain the empowerment of Shri Vairochana and his consort Buddha Dhatvishvari.KEY:༼archaic ༽[misspelling]{contraction}(addition)[{misspelling and contraction}]((numerical code))<>-? unable to read

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Tantrism

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A religious movement that originated in India around the fifth to seventh century with sacred writings and esoteric teachings and practices transmitted from teacher to student through initiation. These remain an important part of Hinduism and Buddhism today. 

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Ritual

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Prescribed practices that carry symbolic meaning and value within a specific tradition and are intended to attain a desired outcome. Rituals are usually done as part of a ceremony or regular routine.

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Visualization

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A meditation technique primarily used in tantric practice that involves imagining a deity in one’s mind or imagining oneself becoming a deity and carrying out various activities. Such techniques are intended to help a practitioner transform ordinary perception and achieve enlightened qualities.

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Buddhas

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An awakened being who understands the true nature of reality and is free from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. While there are many buddhas, Siddhartha Gautama is the historical Buddha, whose teachings became the foundation of Buddhism.

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Tibetan Regions

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Today, Tibetans primarily inhabit the Tibetan Plateau, situated between the Himalayan mountain range and the Indian subcontinent to the west, Chinese cultural regions to the east, and Mongolian cultural regions to the northeast. During the 7th to 9th century, Tibetan rulers expanded their empire across Central Asia, and established Buddhism as the state religion.

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