Ritual Symbolism and Artistic Aspects of Three-Dimensional Mandalas in Tantric Tibetan Buddhism

Michael Henss with contributions from Pema Namdol Thaye

Three-dimensional mandala in form of golden building featuring loggias, towers, and pagoda roofs — Kalachakra Palace Mandala; Potala Palace, Dukhor Lhakhang, Lhasa, Tibet; 1690s; gilt-brass repoussé, with cast figures, on wooden armature, with precious stone, crystal, and glass inlays; diam. 20 ft. 4 in. (6.2 m), height approx. 63 in. (1.6 m); photograph by Walter Gross, 1997

The Kalachakra Mandala in the Potala Palace

Lhasa, U region, central Tibet late 17th century

Kalachakra Palace Mandala; Potala Palace, Dukhor Lhakhang, Lhasa, Tibet; 1690s; gilt-brass repoussé, with cast figures, on wooden armature, with precious stone, crystal, and glass inlays; diam. 20 ft. 4 in. (6.2 m), height approx. 63 in. (1.6 m); photograph by Walter Gross, 1997

Summary

Scholar Michael Henss explores a palatial mandala, a three-dimensional model of a divine abode, used in tantric initiations in which practitioners visualize themselves as a deity at the center of their universe. Mandala symbolism goes back to the oldest known Indian tantric texts, but the earliest recorded model mandalas in Tibet date from the fourteenth century. Today, Bhutanese artist Pema Namdol Thaye builds these mandalas in stages of ritual and visualization using traditional and contemporary methods.

Key Terms

consecration

In most Asian religious traditions, when an image of a deity is made, it must be made sacred (“consecrated”) by inviting the deity to inhabit it. A variety of rituals can be involved in this, including dotting the image’s eyes, visualizing the descent of the deity into the image, writing mantras on the back of a thangka, or placing sacred texts and mantras inside of a statue.

Mount Meru

In Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cosmologies Mount Meru is a mountain at the center of the world, the peaks of which contain heavens and divine realms. It is surrounded by many lakes, rings of mountains, and further out, the great ocean and four continents. Humans live on a southern continent called Jampudvipa. Buddhists interpret Jampudvipa corresponding to India, and Mount Meru is roughly equivalent to the Himalayas. Many Buddhists and Hindus identify Meru with Mount Kailash, a peak in western Tibet, as the focus of pilgrimage.

Tibetan Buddhism

Historically, Tibetan Buddhism refers to those Buddhist traditions that use Tibetan as a ritual language. It is practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Ladakh, and among certain groups in Nepal, China, and Russia and has an international following. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in two waves, first when rulers of the Tibetan Empire (seventh to ninth centuries CE), embraced the Buddhist faith as their state religion, and during the second diffusion (late tenth through thirteenth centuries), when monks and translators brought in Buddhist culture from India, Nepal, and Central Asia. As a result, the entire Buddhist canon was translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to become centers of intellectual, cultural, and political power. From the end of the twelfth century, Tibetans were exporting their own Buddhist traditions abroad. Tibetan Buddhism integrates Mahayana teachings with the esoteric practices of Vajrayana, and includes those developed in Tibet, such as Dzogchen, as well as indigenous Tibetan religious practices focused on local gods. Historically major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk.

vajra

In the Vedas, vajras are the indestructibly hard thunderbolts that Indra hurls at his enemies. Over time, the vajra became the name for a type of ritual weapon, with a handle at the center and a five-pronged point at each end. Vajras are a central image in and symbol of tantric forms of Buddhism, which are often called “Vajrayana” or the “Vajra Vehicle.” Vajrayana ritualists use vajras (representing active compassion or method) often paired with a bell (representing wisdom) in practices of deity yoga. The Tibetan word for a vajra is “dorje,” meaning “Lord among stones.”

visualization

Visualization is a process of using one’s imagination to transform reality. A practitioner imagines in their mind’s eye the deity with the associated enlightened qualities they wish to embody themselves. When focused on a specific deity, visualization and related ritual practices are called deity yoga. Visualization is a fundamental element of such practices described in texts known tantras, which define a system of meditation and ritual meant to transform the mind and body.

yidam

In Vajrayana Buddhism, a yidam is a deity or buddha with whom the meditator connects as part of a deity yoga practice. Practitioners take tantric vows (Tib. damtsik) as part of abhisheka initiations, followed by oral instruction from a master, which permit them to perform meditations in which they visualize themselves becoming the deity described in a particular tantra, and gaining that deity’s enlightened or wrathful powers.

mandala

In Vajrayana Buddhism or Bon, a mandala refers to a cosmic abode of a deity, usually depicted as a diagram of a circle with an inscribed square that represents the deity enthroned in their palace, surrounded by members of their retinue. Mandalas can be painted, three-dimensional models, architectural structures, such as temples or stupas, or composed as arrangements of images within a temple. The instructions for creating and visualizing mandalas are usually found in ritual texts, such as tantras and sadhanas. Mandalas can be used in initiation ceremonies, visualized by a practitioner as part of deity yoga, consecrated and used to represent the divine presence within ritual space, offered to the deities as representations of the entire universe. A similar concept in Hinduism is a yantra.

The word (Tibetan: kyilkhor) can be translated as “a circle around a central point.” The three-dimensional mandala is a visual cosmogram, combining the square concept of this world and the circular transcendental spheres of the macrocosmic universe. As a meditational instrument it is visualized when presented during an initiation ceremony by an authorized and introduced to the practitioner as a microcosmic offering of himself and of this world to the specific in the center and to the entire macrocosm. This celestial edifice is understood as a model of the interrelations between human and universe, representing the visualized way to the central deity in its interior with which the adept becomes finally identical.

Mandala Typology

Mandala images and objects in esoteric can be classified into eight types: two-dimensional sand mandalas; two-dimensional painted mandalas on cloth (thangkas) or temple walls; painted or drawn “table mandalas” on cloth or wood; three-dimensional square mandalas with multistory wooden armatures; three-dimensional (World Mountain) cosmos mandalas, usually small and thus portable, in gilt repoussé metal with engraved or sculptural symbolic decoration; the three-dimensional, geometric of , with cast-metal or painted or diagrammatic patterns around a central Sanskrit root syllable; cast-metal lotus mandalas in the form of an eight-petaled bud to be opened in ritual; and large-scale three-dimensional palace mandalas, such as the main object shown here.

A large palace mandala has central structures in gilt metal on a wooden armature, with elaborate ornamental and figural details representing the cosmic and divine universe as described in tantric texts and visualized in mandala ritual. It is installed in a separate temple sanctuary. Some early examples survive, such as those in the Lhasa Potala Palace, the and Monasteries, and the Buddhist sanctuaries of the former Imperial Palace in .

Little attention has been paid beyond general visual concepts to the three-dimensional Mount Meru and palace mandalas. The former, with diameters of about 12 to 16 inches (30–40 centimeters), are usually accessible only in public and private collections, removed from their original ritual and historical contexts. The large palace mandalas transform the plan of the painted mandalas into larger structures such as the one here, which measures over 20 feet (6.2 meters) in diameter and over 5 feet (1.5 meters) in height (fig. 1).

The Mandala Palace: Construction and Symbolism

The term “palace” is mentioned in the and in the Tibetan Tengyur, the “translated doctrine” of the Buddhist , first compiled as the Buddhist canon in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when the earliest three-dimensional mandalas probably existed. As noted in the contemporary Sadhanamala scriptures, an iconographic and ritualistic collection for visualizing and worshipping deities, “In the midst (of the outer diamond enclosure) one can see a palace with four arches.”

The architectural structure of three stories rises from the wavy circular platform of the World Ocean, surrounded by a lotus fence, a diamond enclosure, and a fiery wall—powerful symbols of creation, purity, and rebirth, of burning and destroying all kind of samsaric ignorances, illusions, and attachments, of the indestructible nature, and of supreme wisdom and enlightenment. The three stories, partially hidden by the four-tiered portico gates oriented to the four directions, are related to the Three Realms of Existence: desire on the ground floor, the world of phenomena and forms in the middle section, and the formless spheres of the divine Meru temple palace on top. According to the (trikaya) doctrine, they may also be associated, like the 722 deities, with the three emanations or bodies of the Buddha: his physical human form; his transcendental, glorified enjoyment body; and his formless, absolute dharma or truth body, which is beyond representation. Another symbolic context might be the tantric concept of the Three Receptacles or “supports” of the Buddha and his teachings: his outer visible body, his inner, visually imperceptible mental body, and his secret diamond body, accessible only to the initiated.

The four-tiered portico sections and with four pillars on each tier are also associated with the in as well as with the enlightened pacifying, increasing, conquering, and subjugating activities of the tantric practitioner, and, when double, with the Eightfold Noble Path.

Iconography

As in a sand mandala, not all 722 Kalachakra deities can be represented figurally even in a large three-dimensional mandala; few of the many seated miniature statuettes on the outer platform are identifiable, except the large Kalachakra with his female consort Vishvamata, surrounded by a full-body nimbus. The deities on the three terraces refer to the body mandala (536 deities) on the ground floor, to the speech mandala (of the Buddha’s Word, 116 deities) on the intermediate section, and to the mind mandala (seventy deities) on the topmost divine palace level amid the celestial spheres of thirty-three gods, here in two groups associated with Great Bliss and Profound Awareness, with male and female buddhas and , and and offering deities around the central main divinity. Other iconographic motifs are the offering goddesses of the five senses, the Eight Auspicious symbols, the seven jewels of royal power, ritual offering vases filled with consecrated water or the amrita nectar of immortality, magic purba daggers protecting the sacred space, and decorative precious stone and crystal .

Cosmology: The Square and the Circle

Beyond its cosmological symbolism, the basic square mandala plan, with four sides around a central point and vertical axis surrounded by a circular outer enclosure, is a five-fold manifestation of the Buddha and the Five Tathagatas mandala. The practitioner ritually circumambulates and visualizes the mandala palace in different initiation stages. Other monumental mandalas of the Highest Anuttarayoga Tantra systems are based on a crossed double vajra oriented to the four cardinal directions (fig. 2), a cosmic world plan, and a symbol of the clear and indestructible diamond nature of the Buddha wisdom, associated with the Diamond Throne (vajrasana) of Buddha’s enlightenment at .

Three-dimensional mandala in the form of golden pagoda-roofed palace decorated with colorful inset stones — Fig 2.
Yamantaka Palace Mandala; Potala Palace, Lolang Lhakhang, Lhasa, U region, central Tibet; 1751; gilt brass repoussé on wooden armature, with precious stone and other inlays; diameter ca. 12 ft. 6 in. (3.8 m), height ca. 71 in. (1.8 m); photograph after Hongxiao Liu. 1999. *Gems of the Potala Palace*. Beijing: Zhongguo minzu sheying yishu chubanshe, 92

Figural sceneries of the Eight Cemeteries are around the mandala. The torana elements were donated by the Qianlong emperor (the Chinese inscription above the four archway structures reads: *Da Qing Qianlong nian shi*).

The square oriented to the four directions and the circle of the universe with no beginning or end are formulas of space and time, representing a world view and a model of the interrelated human and divine worlds, the harmony of the cosmic order, and the perfect Buddha nature.

The visualized path into the mandala transforms the mind, purifies it from mental defilements, and empowers and authorizes it to practice the tantric teachings.

The cosmological symbolism can be associated with Brahmanic concepts of primordial creative energies (prajapati) and with the origins of the world illustrated by the dancing god , with his fire-flaming circular body nimbus, or with Vedic fire altars, as well as with later Hindu temples. The prototype of Indian sacred shrines is the square Vastupurusha mandala plan mentioned in the as many as three thousand years ago, an archetypical mandala-like building plan (vastu) divided into several square sections and related to an ideal cosmogonic human figure (purusha, “man” or “mankind”), a primordial plan of macro- and microcosmic existence.

Said to have been taught first by the , the Kalachakra mandala can be traced back to the Abhidharmakosha scriptures on the concept of the cosmic world system by the fifth-century Indian Mahayana scholar Vasubandhu. The relevant tantric teachings were introduced to Tibet in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Large palace mandalas existed by the fourteenth century at the Drigung, , and Ganden Monasteries. Some mandalas from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries have survived in the monasteries at Gyantse (one) and Drepung (three), in the Potala Palace (four), and in the former Imperial Palace in Beijing.

A few Meru and palace mandalas were newly constructed between 1995 and 2015 at , in the Lhasa Jokhang, and a huge Meru torma mandala at in eastern Tibet (fig. 3).

Three-dimensional golden mandala in the form of palace situated atop four cylinders of decreasing diameter — Fig. 3.
Mount Meru Palace Mandala; Yachengar Monastery, Kham region, eastern Tibet (present-day Sichuan Province); gilt metal repoussé; height ca. 71 in. (1.8 m); photograph by Rolf Koch, 2018

The three upper tiers are filled with semi-precious stones, crystals, glass particles, cowry shells, and other materials.

Contemporary Three-Dimensional Mandalas

The highly accomplished artist Pema Namdol Thaye, born in Bhutan in 1967 and since 2008 a permanent resident of the United States, has for this essay provided further insights on the making and meaning of three-dimensional palace mandalas. In his works, he combines painting, statuary, and architecture, often on a scale comparable to the palace mandalas of centuries past. Concerned that the tradition of meditational architectures could become extinct, Thaye is, in his own words, “bringing the celestial vision into life,” furthering the art of mandalas he learned as a child from his uncle, Lama Gonpo Tenzing Rinpoche. Recently, Thaye completed a Zhitro Mandala, a colorful three-dimensional mandala of the peaceful and fear-inspiring (zhitro) deities of the (fig. 4); and Zangdok Pelri Mandala, “,” a palace mandala representing the celestial mansion of Padmasambhava. Both works are based on texts closely associated with Padmasambhava.

Three-dimensional polychrome mandala in the form of golden architectural structure topped with stupa — Fig. 4.
Pema Namdol Thaye (American, b. 1967, Bhutan); Zhitro Mandala; 2000; gilt metal on wooden armature, polymeric resin compound (for minor decorative caste motifs such as animals, tassels, banners, and Buddhist emblems), semiprecious stone inlays, pearls, colored glass, and more; diam. 10 ft. 10 in. (3.3 m), height 65 in. (1.65 m); © Pema Namdol Thaye, photograph by Padma Studios

This mandala and the relevant teachings refer to a hundred peaceful (*zhi*) and wrathful (*tro*) divinities believed to be associated with the human body, and visualized in the Zhitro Dzogchen praxis as a mandala of these deities.

Zhitro is a tantric “Great Perfection,” or Integration, Awakening () praxis based on once hidden and later rediscovered treasure texts (). It visualizes the human body mandala during the transitional phase between death and rebirth as consisting of and manifested by one hundred peaceful (zhi) and wrathful (tro) deities representing the purified body, speech (teachings), and mind. Two extraordinarily large and unique mandalas of this , with life-size figures, designed by Thaye as temple buildings that can be entered physically by the practitioner, are presently under construction.

After studying the tantra texts related to a specific mandala, one would visualize the relevant deities and the entire mandala before the actual . The artistic process requires, as Thaye notes, many stages of . The next steps in creating the cosmic palace are cleaning the site and protecting it against evil influences, asking permission of local spirits and demi-gods to build the mandala, and paying homage to the central deity through meditation and prayers requesting its blessings. As in a sand mandala, each divine figure is ritually consecrated for the empowerment conferred on the participating practitioners.

The Rubin Museum of Art, designed to some extent on circular and square mandala-like concepts, has organized its third floor as a Mandala Lab for a physical and mental journey on the path to the center, through cosmic realms and inner experiences. It is designed to focus the viewer’s awareness and multiple senses, inspiring empathy and transforming emotions or mental afflictions into wisdom, so that viewers may better navigate their lives. In a wider sense, then, the museum becomes a three-dimensional mandala palace.

Footnotes

We exclude here, due to different iconographies, forms, and functions, some mandala-like thread-cross “palaces,” with multicolored thread designs; see Michael Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet: A Handbook on Ceremonial Objects and Ritual Furnishings in the Tibetan Temple (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2020), figs. 103–5. For a survey of three-dimensional mandalas and further references, see Michael Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet: A Handbook on Ceremonial Objects and Ritual Furnishings in the Tibetan Temple (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2020), figs. 68–102 (Beijing, fig. 83b), yantras, figs. 103–105; Michael Henss, The Cultural Monuments of Tibet: The Central Regions, vol. 1 and 2 (Munich: Prestel, 2014), figs. 112, 172–78, 327, 328, 757b, 758, 953b, and 746nn77–78 (Sakya, no longer extant). On concepts and symbolism in mandalas, see Martin Brauen, Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism. Exhibition catalog (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/2._mandala; for text sources, symbolism, and rituals unrelated to specific mandala objects and images, see Alex Wayman, The Buddhist Tantras: Light on Indo-Tibetan Esotericism (New York: S. Weiser, 1973).

Alex Wayman, The Buddhist Tantras: Light on Indo-Tibetan Esotericism (New York: S. Weiser, 1973), 88ff.

Michael Henss, The Cultural Monuments of Tibet: The Central Regions, vol. 1 and 2 (Munich: Prestel, 2014), figs. 112, 172–78, 757b, 758, 953b, and p. 217 (Ganden, erected under Tsongkhapa in 1417; compare George N. Roerich, The Blue Annals, 2 vols. (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1949) 1976, 1078); Michael Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet: A Handbook on Ceremonial Objects and Ritual Furnishings in the Tibetan Temple (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2020), 91–95. For the former Sakya mandala, compare Giuseppe Tucci, Transhimalaya (Geneva: Nagel, 1973), fig. 170, described in Butön’s (Bu ston) biography “with pagoda roofs, on top of the other like a royal palace”; Michael Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet: A Handbook on Ceremonial Objects and Ritual Furnishings in the Tibetan Temple (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2020), 116n8; for Drigung, see Liu Yisi 刘艺斯, Xizang Fojiao Yishu 西藏佛教艺术 [Buddhist Art of Tibet] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1957), pl. 10.

Michael Henss, The Cultural Monuments of Tibet: The Central Regions, vol. 1 and 2 (Munich: Prestel, 2014), figs. 327, 328; Michael Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet: A Handbook on Ceremonial Objects and Ritual Furnishings in the Tibetan Temple (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2020), figs. 81 (Gyantse, datable to 1425), 82, 83a, 83b.

See also Pema Namdol Thaye, “Celestial Visions in Three Dimensions: How Pema Namdol Thaye Builds Mandalas, Bringing Cosmic Realms to Life; Interview by Elena Pakhoutova,” Spiral Magazine, 2021; Howard Kaplan, “Circle in the Square: How the Mandala Lab Builds on the Rubin Museum of Art’s Storied Architecture,” in Spiral Magazine (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2021), 41–42, https://rubinmuseum.org/spiral/circle-in-the-square. I thank Pema Namdol Thaye very much for useful information about his mandala work.

Pema Namdol Thaye, “Celestial Visions in Three Dimensions: How Pema Namdol Thaye Builds Mandalas, Bringing Cosmic Realms to Life; Interview by Elena Pakhoutova,” Spiral Magazine, 2021.

For the painted (zhitro) mandala iconography of the forty-two peaceful and fifty-eight wrathful deities, see Adelheid Herrmann-Pfandt, The Copper-Coloured Palace: Iconography of the RNyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, vol. 1, Buddha and Buddha Worlds (Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 2018), 127–290. While historical mandalas are largely gilt, contemporary examples are more distinctively polychromed in the traditional “cosmic colors” of blue in the east, yellow in the south, red in the west, and green in the north.