Manjushri Lhakang, Sakya Town

The Manjushri Lhakang (temple) of Sakya Town in Tibet, is located in a small room above the building known as the Drolma Lhakang located a short distance from the main Lhakang Chenmo temple complex of Sakya. The Drolma Lhakang has three separate temple rooms. The first, on the ground floor, is called the Drolma or Tara temple although there is little inside that is specifically dedicated to Tara. To the right side of the main entrance, accessed through a separate door, is the Tangtong Gyalpo Lhakang. In June of 2007 this temple was under going extensive renovations. From an upper floor window murals of repetitive images of Tangtong Gyalpo could be seen on the walls. (See a map of the Tsang region of Tibet).

The Manjushri Lhakang is located on the 2nd floor of the two storied Drolma Lhakang building. The room has a single pillar in the middle and a couple of small windows. There is no shrine or furniture in the empty room. The four walls are painted with murals, floor to ceiling, depicting every form of Manjushri, peaceful and wrathful. The more important, or common, of the forms are painted large scale with the minor, or more obscure forms, smaller in size. Each iconographic form is accompanied with a name inscription. Some of the Manjushri forms have retinue deities which can be seen clearly in image #46875. The iconography of the paintings represent the many forms of Manjushri found in the Kriya, Charya and Yoga Tantras of Tantric Buddhism. One wall has sustained damage and the paintings have been effaced with cracks patched and filled. The general format and stylistic elements of the murals and comparing them with the more datable murals of Jonang Monastery, Tagten Damcho Ling, not far away would suggest a date of 17th century the creation of the murals. (The photos were taken in June of 2007).

Manjushri Cave, Sakya Town

The Manjushri Cave is located on the North side of Sakya slightly West of the large patch of white earth (sakya). The cave was made famous by Sachen Kunga Nyingpo when he was twelve years old and had entered into a strict six month retreat on the practice of Arapachana Manjushri. Early on there were obstacles but they were removed using the practice of Nila Achala, wrathful, blue in colour, in a kneeling posture. Towards the end of the retreat Arya Manjushri appeared to the young Kunga Nyingpo and spoke the four lines of the Separation of the Four Attachments (see below).

"With attachment to this life - there is no Dharma practitioner;
Attachment to samsara - no renunciation;
Attachment to self-purpose - no Enlightenment Thought;
If grasping arises - there is no view."

The image on the left is a 2007 photograph of the cave entrance and the shrine inside. A building has also been constructed around the cave to help preserve it from the elements. Almost all of the buildings on the North side of the river are reconstructions from the 1980s to the present.

Sakya Monastery & Town

The Sakya Monastery & Town Page on the Himalayan Art Resources website has been updated with 600 images from the SRG Archive. Not all of the images have been divided into their subject or location themes. This will happen over the next couple of weeks. The Manjushri Cave has been added. This is the location where Sachen Kunga Nyingpo had direct communication with Arya Manjushri during a six month retreat. The Ushnishavijaya Stupa has been added. This is the final resting place for the body of Bari Lotsawa Dharma Drag. Both of these sacred sights are located in the same building on the North side of Sakya to the left of the white patch of earth. The protector chapel of Lhakang Chenmo, the main South Monastery, has also been added.

Manjushri: Principal Tantric Forms & Emanations

Manjushri - forms, manifestations and function - an outline page on the HAR website.

Wutaishan Mountain with Luding Khenpo

The SRG has had no recent updates because I am still away in China. Currently I am at Wutaishan Mountain the most holy location for the bodhisattva/deity Manjushri in China.

Luding Khenpo is also here and we spent the day along with a small group of students touring the main sites on the valley floor in the morning. In the afternoon we climbed the stairs to one temple to see a shrine presenting all five forms of Manjushri associated with each of the five peaks. The concept of five Manjushri forms and five peaks is said in the Tibetan tradition to be created by Chogyal Pagpa the preceptor to Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty. It is also said that Chogyal Pagpa was physically involved with the construction of the main stupa at Wutaishan.

Google blogs are not generally accessible in China and I won't be able to post images until I return to Hong Kong or New York on Friday. Don't ask me how I was able to post this entry. The internet has many country roads and back alleys.

Visual Models for Arapachana Manjushri (Part 2: Variations)

There are four basic forms of Manjushri that are either called Arapachana by name or use the Arapachana syllables as the principal mantra for the deity. The first (1) is Arapachana, orange in colour, sometimes white. He holds a sword in the right hand and the stem of an utpala flower supporting the Prajnaparamita text in the left. The second (2) form is Manjushri associated with a famous Sanskrit praise, orange in colour. The third (3) form is Arapachana, white in colour, sometimes orange, with the two hands holding the stems of two utpala flowers supporting a sword and text. The fourth (4), Vidyadhara Pitika (not shown here), is similar to the second form except white in colour and with the left leg pendant.

All forms of Arapachana Manjushri are peaceful in appearance. There are also many other forms of Manjushri that are peaceful but do not use the Name Arapachana or the arapachana mantra. Also, not all forms of Manjushri are peaceful. The principal examples of semi-wrathful and wrathful appearance are Black Manjushri as semi and then the many forms of Vajrabhairava, Krishna Yamari, Rakta Yamari and Manjushri Nagaraksha.

On the illustrated example page provided above there are four additional images of Manjushri related to Arapachana. These are found on a mandala painting of Vagishvari Dharmadhatu. The painting depicts twenty-three peaceful forms of Manjushri, three wrathful forms known as Yamari, and three mandalas in total.

Visual Models for Arapachana Manjushri (Part 1: Background)

Manjushri is a very important 'general' Tantric meditation in the Sakya Tradition. Manjushri was important for the Five Holy Superiors of the Sakya School - the five early founders (jetsun gongma nga). He was especially important for both Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and Sakya Pandita. Both of these teachers had visions of Manjushri. Sachen heard the profound Mind Training teaching called the Separation from the Four Attachments directly from Manjushri during a six month Arapachana retreat. Sakya Pandita was even regarded as an early Tibetan emanation of Manjushri, while Sapan himself considered his own teacher, Dragpa Gyaltsen, to be Manjushri. Sapan was later to be included as the first of the Three Manjushris of Tibet along with Longchenpa Drime Ozer and Je Tsongkapa Lobsang Dragpa.

Sakya Pandita wrote a four line praise to Dragpa Gyaltsen addressing him as Manjunatha - the Lord Manjushri. However, this praise was not used or directed towards Dragpa Gyaltsen by Sakya Pandita's students but rather directed to Sakya Pandita himself who had become even more famous as a Manjushri emanation. Even today in the Sakya School this is the main praise/prayer addressed to Sapan.

"With wide eyes perceiving all things,
And compassionately achieving the good of all beings;
Having power performing acts beyond thought.
Guru Manjunata, to your feet I bow my head."
(Written by Sakya Pandita).

Padmasambhava made predictions about the rise of the Sakya Tradition and the holy location of the large patch of white earth at the place known as 'sakya.' Later, Jowo Atisha also made predictions when seeing the famous 'sakya' location and elaborated by saying that in the future there would be an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani and many Manjushri emanations arising from this geographic location. In Tibet the Sakya School also became known as the Manjushri Tradition. Generally, all male members of the Khon family, the hereditary leaders of the Sakya School, are each regarded as Manjushri emanations.

The three main Manjushri practices in Sakya are the (1) Arapachana (orange or white), (2) White (Sita) and (3) Black (Krishna) Manjushris. The function of the first two Manjushris is in the generation of knowledge, memory and ultimately the two forms of wisdom, prajna (sherab) and jnana (yeshe). Black Manjushri, included in the Thirteen Golden Dharmas, is for removing serious obstacles, hindrances, sickness and disease not curable or alleviated through other means.

The Arapachana form of Manjushri has a small number of different variations along with an orange version and a white version. The white form appears to be the original colour for Arapachana. It is not clear when or why the orange form developed and became the more popular form of the deity. There is the practice of the single deity and then there is the Mandala of Five Deities - Manjushri at the center surrounded by four accompanying figures. Even though Arapachana is classified as both a Kriya and Charya Tantra practice there is early evidence from the Bari Gyatsa of Bari Lotsawa Rinchen Drag that there were Perfection Stage (dzog rim) practices used to accompany the Generation Stage (kye rim) Deity Yoga. Perfection Stage techniques were generally a unique practice and characteristic of the Anuttaryoga Classification of Buddhist Tantra. The Sakya Tradition classifies the Manjushri Root Tantra, Manjushri Mulakalpa, as a Charya Tantra. (See a short essay on Tantra Classification).

The significant physical characteristics of Arapachana are the blue sword of wisdom held upraised in the right hand and the Prajnaparamita supported on an utpala blossom held in the left hand. Some forms of Arapachana describe him with the two hands in the Dharma Teaching gesture at the heart while holding the stems of two blue utpala flowers supporting the wisdom sword and Prajnaparamita book. The blue utpala flower is not a lotus. It is thought by some Western experts to be a blue lily flower.

Older archaic forms of Manjushri, depicted in painting and sculpture, place the Prajnaparamita text held to the heart in the left hand. A good example of the archaic form is the sculpture belonging to the late Dezhung Rinpoche Tenpai Nyima, previously belonging to Ngagwang Legpa Rinpoche. This form is also most often seen in early Indian, Kashmiri and Tibetan sculpture. Since the 15th or 16th centuries this variation is rarely described in the liturgical or practice manuals. See a brief explanation of the iconographic features of Arapachana. However, the most common and iconic form of Manjushri is when he is depicted holding the wisdom sword upraised to the sky, ready to cleave, symbolically severing the roots of ignorance. This is the form of the deity that is commonly practiced by the teachers of the past and the students and practitioners of today. The most special and profound practice is called the Sakya Uncommon Orange Arapachana Manjushri.

My favorite image of the deity which was also the form I was first introduced to many years ago was published by the London Buddhist Society (shown above). I am not sure who owns the actual painting, possibly the Society or perhaps the V & A Museum in London. The image here is a scan from the old folding note card. I believe what is well depicted here is the most important characteristic of the Arapachana form. That characteristic is the subtle right twist in the body created from the raising of the right arm holding the sword of wisdom. When this twist which occurs naturally is not depicted then the result is a very stiff and unnatural looking form (try it yourself while looking in the mirror). A big part of the charm of Arapachana is this youthful dexterity and suppleness described as a characteristic of the Indian deva and devi (gods and goddesses) forms found in classical Indian literature - a basis for Buddhsit Tantric texts. An important epithet for Manjushri is kumara, meaning youthful, Kumara Manjushri, or Kumarabhuta Arapachana Manjushri.

Manjushri Resources:
Manjushri Main Page on HAR
Manjushri Outline Page on HAR
Manjushri Tantra Classifications on HAR
Exhibition: Wutaishan, Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain
Wutaishan, Pilgrimage to the Five Peaked Mountain (asianart.com)
Origins of Manjushri
Manjushri Bibliography

Visual Models of the Various Forms of Manjushri

Well, so far nobody has any other suggestions for visual models than what I have already put forth. Tomorrow I will present several different forms of Manjushri. Arapachana and Black Manjushri have the same body posture so I will offer my preferred choices for those. White Manjushri is an interesting form because it is so often confused with White Tara, White Prajnaparamita and Lokeshvara. There are some very good examples of White Manjushri to be found in the different collections.