EASILY RECOGNIZED FIGURES

     In the phantasmagoria of figures that populate Tibetan art in sculpture, mural paintings and thangkas, some important historical people and religious beings can be recognized by their iconographic conventions.

1. King Songtsen Gampo (AD 608-50). Introduced Buddhism to Tibet. Founded Tubo line of kings. Always wears high orange or gold turban with small Amitabha Buddha head peeping out of the top. Chinese wife, Wen Cheng, always on viewer's right. Nepalese wife, Tritsun, on viewer's left.

2. Tsong Khapa (1357-1419). Great reformer of Tibetan Buddhism. Founder of the Yellow Hat Sect. Always seated. Wears pointed yellow cap with long ear flaps. Usually smiling, with a bulbous nose. His image is often repeated with large and small versions of himself sitting side by side.

3. Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-82). Greatest of all the dalai lamas. Unified Tibet and made Yellow Hat Sect the state religion. Built the Potala. Wears pointed yellow cap with ear flaps. Portly, with double chins and popping eyes. Often has small moustache.


4. Sakyamuni (fifth century BC). The historical Buddha (see page 56). His enlightenment and teachings set in motion the Buddhist faith, which today claims 300 million followers. Often has blue hair with a cranial bump on top, but sometimes crowned. Usually sits cross-legged on a lotus-flowers throne.

5. Chenrezi, the bodhisattva of compassion. (Tibetan manifestation of India's Avalokitesvara, or China's Guan Yin.) In full splendour he displays 11 heads (of which one is wrathful) and multiple pairs of arms. Sometimes encircled by 1,000 hands. In simpler forms he is hard to distinguish from other crowned Buddhas.

6. Tara, the most beloved of female deities. Special protectress and saviour of the Tibetan people. Symbolizes fertility. Believed to fulfil wishes. Green Tara associated with night and Tritsun; White Tara with day and Wen Cheng. Usually seated. Wears pagoda-shaped crown. Delicate features. Has seven eyes on face, hands and feet.

7. Yamantaka the Terrible. Favorite of the eight guardians of the faith, popularized by Tsong Khapa. A wrathful form of the bodhisattva of wisdom. Colored blue with horned bull's head. Many arms. Body draped with skulls. Tramples on human forms representing stupidity, sloth and nihilism. Often shown in sexual embrace (yab-yum) with his female partner, Prajna (Wisdom), symbolizing the union of compassion and insight.