A LARGE THANGKA OF SIMHAVAKTRA DAIKINI.

Tibet, 19th Century.

Ink and colour on canvas, unmounted, the black-bodied female deity with a head of a white lion dancing amidst flames on top of a corpse, belted with a tiger hide and with a human skin over her shoulders, with a wreath of skulls over the blue mane, a necklace of human heads completing the attire, her face with a fearsome expression, the forehead pierced with the third eye, holding a kapala in her left hand and a flaying knife karrtrika in the right, flanked by two animal-headed deities and four bodhisattvas above her in the clouds, 166 x 94cm.

西藏十九世紀 獅面空行母畫

Simhavaktra literally means 'the lion-headed one' and daikini translates into 'skywalker'. She is one of the heavenly beings created by the Buddhas to overcome powerful demons and when visualised during meditation she helps the practitioner to obtain enlightened vision. The third eye symbolises exceptional sight and being able to see beyond misleading obstacles, the human skin evokes the rejection of appearances and the ability to see things (and people) according to their true nature.

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