Gshrin Rje Mandala

Monks of the Gyuto Tantric University

1991

Colored silicate and adhesive on wood

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A circular Tibetan mandala painting on a dark background, featuring intricate geometric patterns and symbolic imagery in vibrant colors. A mandala can be an abstracted representation of a deity’s heavenly palace and used in meditation and initiation rites to assimilate the power of the deity. The creation and consecration of a mandala is believed to benefit all beings. Here, the mandala represents the realm of the fierce protective deity Gshin Rje (Sanskrit: Yamantaka), the violent form of the bodhisattva Jam-dpal (Sanskrit: Manjushri), who assumes this wrathful aspect to vanquish the god of death. In the mandala, Gshin Rje is represented in the center as a blue <i>vajra</i> (thunderbolt). A team of Gyuto monks created this mandala at the museum in 1991 over a period