#tsakli

~ Tibetan religious painting (tsakli) depicting deity of the Bon religion (from the Bon tsakli set).

Date: 15th century

Place of origin: Tibet

Initiation cards (Tsakli), Tibet, 16th/17th century.

The inscriptions on the back of each card indicate that the set originally functioned as initiation cards into tantric practice. However, they seem to have been repurposed into a banner to decorate a meditation hall. The cards depict various animal-headed wrathful deities associated with the Nyingma tradition.  Each ecstatically dances on a prone human figure over a simple lotus platform.  They wear tiger skins, and some with flayed human skins. They hold various attributes, and many with human corpses in their grasp.

A Tsakli Painting  (Initiation Image) Depicting A Bardo Deity   Tibet   circa 17th Century   Ink and mineral pigment on prepared card

Within an elongated nimbus a fierce red bodied khyung-headed bardo deity (after death deity - the bardo is the 49 day state between death and rebirth, such deities are encountered whilst in that state) dances on her right leg, her left  upraised near her body.   She wears a flayed human skin, a leopard skin dhoti and bone ornaments. In her right hand she carries a club.  Extensive text in several different hands to the reverse, including some red highlight.