Right now (fall 2024) at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is a fabulous exhibit on Tibetian Mandalas, and here is one that is perfect for the current Halloween season.
Mandalas in Tibetian Buddhism are artistic representations of the spiritual universe, often comprised of geometric shapes and featuring specific deities that reflect different aspects of the conscious experience.
This image from 1800 shows an aggressive aspect of the Goddess Tara, known as Ekajata. Ekajata guards secret teachings important to a branch of Tibetian Buddhism called the Nyingma. Often in Mandalas, the deity is in the center, but here Ekajata is shown symbolically, with a human heart and a trident.
The square around her seems typical for Tibetian art at first glance, but look harder — it is made up of human entrails and bones. The four gates in the cardinal directions have entrails of humans and other animals. The “palace” is surrounded and draped by a flayed corpse. The red swirls represent oceans of blood, and outside of all that is a black smoky abyss.
In Tantric Buddhist traditions, the frightening and repellent deities have these qualities to act as protectors to their followers. They can crash through barriers to Enlightenment with their ferocity.
