Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/26

xx by small human skulls, all of which symbolize renunciation of the world.

Second circle: the Eight Kerimas (cf. pp. 142–3).

Third circle: the Eight Htamenmas (cf. p. 143) and the Four Female Door-Keepers (cf. pp. 143–4).

Outermost circle: the Twenty-Eight Various-Headed Mighty Goddesses (cf. pp. 144–5), four of whom are the Four Yoginīs of the Door (cf. pp. 145–6).

At the bottom, in the centre (Centre) the supreme Knowledge-Holding Deity, the Lotus Lord of Dance (red, for the five colours of text) and shakti. In the four corners, his four companion deities: lower left (East), the Earth-Abiding Knowledge-Holder (white) and shakti; upper left (South), the Knowledge-Holder Having Power Over Duration of Life (yellow) and shakti; upper right (West), the Knowledge-Holding Deity of the Great Symbol (red) and shakti; lower right (North), the Self-Evolved Knowledge-Holder (green) and shakti. Each pair of deities of this maṇḍala, that dawns intermediately (i.e. between the maṇḍalas of the Peaceful Deities and the maṇḍalas of the Wrathful Deities) on the Seventh Day (cf. pp. 126–8), are in peaceful aspect, on an enhaloed lotus and lunar throne, performing a mystic dance which is Tantric.

At the top, in the centre, presiding over the whole greater maṇḍala, is Samanta-Bhadra (dark blue), the Ādi-Buddha, and shakti (white), in peaceful aspect, on a lotus and lunar throne, enhaloed in rainbow colours, with lotuses and the moon (white) on his right and lotuses and the sun (gold) on his left.

A photographic reproduction (about one-fourth of the original size) of a monastic painting in colour, on heavy cotton cloth, made on the instructions of the editor, in Gangtok, Sikkim, by a Tibetan artist named Lharipa-Pempa-Tendup-La, to illustrate the Judgement (see p. 37).

Occupying the central position is Dharma-Rāja, the King of Truth, or Administrator of Truth and Justice, otherwise called Yama-Rāja, the King and Judge of the Dead. He is the wrathful aspect of Chenrazee, the National Divine Protector of Tibet. The third eye of spiritual insight is in his forehead. He stands enhaloed in flames of wisdom, on a solar throne supported by a lotus throne, treading under foot a mārā form, symbolic of the māyā (i.e. illusionary) nature of human existence. His head-dress is adorned with human skulls, and a serpent forms his necklace. His necklet is a human hide, the head of which protrudes from behind his right side, and a hand and foot hang down over the centre of his breast. A girdle of human heads surrounds his waist. His pavilion and the walls of his Court