Potala Palace: Vajravarahi
Copper
Potala Palace: Vajravarahi
CHINA, Tibet, Lhasa
Vajravarahi, the consort of Cakrasamvara, is distinguished by the sow’s head growing from the right side of her skull. The figure has red hair and wears a skull crown and a long garland of heads that sways as she dances upon a corpse. Apart from a stole and several jeweled ornaments, she is completely nude. A skull cup is held in the left hand while a flaying knife is raised in the right. The figure is in the dancing posture, with the bent left leg placed on the corpse and the right supported by a flower growing from the lotus base. The image also has a third eye which symbolizes wisdom that cuts through the illusion of form and phenomena.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture N-Sr, page 828.
Cite this article:
Hsingyun, et al. "Potala Palace: Vajravarahi." Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture N-Sr, vol. 12, 2016, pp. 828.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Yann Lovelock, Yuan Chou, Susan Huntington, Gary Edson, and Robert Neather. 2016. "Potala Palace: Vajravarahi" In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture N-Sr, 12:828.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Lovelock, Y., Chou, Y., Huntington, S., Edson, G., & Neather, R.. (2016). Potala Palace: Vajravarahi. In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture N-Sr (Vol. 12, pp. 828).
@misc{Hsingyun2016,
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Lovelock, Yann and Chou, Yuan and Huntington, Susan and Edson, Gary and Neather, Robert,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture N-Sr},
pages = 828,
title = {{Potala Palace: Vajravarahi}},
volume = 12,
year = {2016}}
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Lovelock, Yann and Chou, Yuan and Huntington, Susan and Edson, Gary and Neather, Robert,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture N-Sr},
pages = 828,
title = {{Potala Palace: Vajravarahi}},
volume = 12,
year = {2016}}