Mangyu Gateway Stupa: Manjusri Bodhisattva

INDIA, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh

This depiction of Manjusri Bodhisattva with five heads and eight arms is painted on the east wall of the Mangyu Gateway Stupa. The heads are arranged in three rows. The central head in the bottom row is white; a red head is on the right, and a wrathful blue head with three eyes is on the left. In the next row, there is a single white head, and at the top, a green head. Each head has long black hair and bears a golden crown.
Manjusri’s slender white body is adorned with bracelets, armlets, and necklaces. The four right hands hold swords and the four left hands hold sutra scrolls, objects that are commonly associated with Manjusri. The Bodhisattva wears a long patterned dhoti and has an oval nimbus and mandorla. A roaring white lion, rarely seen in similar paintings, stands at the bottom of the image.