Kurukulla: Goddess of Unhappy Lovers

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Kurukulla is considered as the Buddhist counterpart of Kamuela, the god of love and his consort Ratio. But unlike Kamuela she does not enslave beings to lust; rather by energizing their liberating insight into the nature reality, she captivates their passions and turns them toward the realization of the Dharma.

The iconographical texts mention different forms of Kurukulla both in peaceful and wrathful appearance. Here the goddess is dancing in ardhaparyankasana on a corpse. She has one head, three eyes and a ferocious expression. Her hair is erect in loose. Kurukulla has four hands, on the right she holds a flowery arrow and the second right hand clasps and pull the bow-string (not clearly visible) and flowery arrow; at the left a hand holds the flower bow and the other a flowery stick with stems.

She wears a crown of five skulls with gemstones. Her body is decked with ornaments which are made of gold with precious gemstones and bone. Moreover she wears a long flowing silk scarf, a long garland of severed human heads, and tiger-skin skirt. There is an arch-shaped aureole with wisdom fire border, behind her body.

On the top Adi-Buddha Samantabhadra is seated on a lotus throne, while in the upper left corner a Tibetan king is seated with a scripture on a lotus throne in clouds and in the right corner perhaps a Nyingma lama who is holding a Vajra and bell, is seated on cushion throne in clouds. An angry Dakini, holding scull cup and a stem of leaves, is shown at the bottom left corner, while Vajrayogini, depicted at the bottom right corner, is holding a Vajra-tipped chopper and a skull cup. The drawing and color-combination of the painting is brilliant. The thangka is very much suitable for sadhana and practices of Kurukulla.

Select Bibliography

A. Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism, Tokyo, 1962

B. Bhattacharyya, The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Calcutta, 1968

Marylin M. Rhie & Robert A.F. Thurman, Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, New York, 1999

Lokesh Chandra, Transcendental Art of Tibet, Delhi, 1996

This description is by Dr. Shailendra K. Verma, whose Doctorate thesis is on "Emergence and Evolution of the Buddha Image (From its inception to 8th century A.D.)".

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Unveiling the Divine Art: Journey into the Making of Thangkas

A Thangka is a traditional Tibetan Buddhist painting that usually depicts a Buddhist Deity (Buddha or Bodhisattva), a scene, or a mandala. These paintings are considered important paraphernalia in Buddhist rituals. They are used to teach the life of the Buddha, various lamas, and Bodhisattvas to the monastic students, and are also useful in visualizing the deity while meditating. One of the most important subjects of thangkas is the Bhavacakra (the wheel of life) which depicts the Art of Enlightenment. It is believed that Thangka paintings were developed over the centuries from the murals, of which only a few can be seen in the Ajanta caves in India and the Mogao caves in Gansu Province, Tibet. Thangkas are painted on cotton or silk applique and are usually small in size. The artist of these paintings is highly trained and has a proper understanding of Buddhist philosophy, knowledge, and background to create a realistic and bona fide painting.

The process of making a thangka begins with stitching a loosely woven cotton fabric onto a wooden frame. Traditionally, the canvas was prepared by coating it with gesso, chalk, and base pigment.

After this, the outline of the form of the deity is sketched with a pencil or charcoal onto the canvas using iconographic grids. The drawing process is followed in accordance with strict guidelines laid out in Buddhist scriptures. The systematic grid helps the artist to make a geometrical and professional painting. When the drawing of the figures is finalized and adjusted, it is then outlined with black ink.

Earlier, a special paint of different colors was made by mixing powdered forms of organic (vegetable) and mineral pigments in a water-soluble adhesive. Nowadays, artists use acrylic paints instead. The colors are now applied to the sketch using the wet and dry brush techniques. One of the characteristic features of a thangka is the use of vibrant colors such as red, blue, black, green, yellow, etc.

In the final step, pure gold is coated over some parts of the thangka to increase its beauty. Due to this beautification, thangkas are much more expensive and also stand out from other ordinary paintings.

Thangka paintings are generally kept unrolled when not on display on the wall. They also come with a frame, a silken cover in front, and a textile backing to protect the painting from getting damaged. Because Thangkas are delicate in nature, they are recommended to be kept in places with no excess moisture and where there is not much exposure to sunlight. This makes them last a long time without their colors fading away. Painting a thangka is an elaborate and complex process and requires excellent skills. A skilled artist can take up to 6 months to complete a detailed thangka painting. In earlier times, thangka painters were lamas that spent many years on Buddhist studies before they painted.