The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented painting depicting the Buddha with gold-tinged skin seated cross-legged on a stylized lotus flower with multi-color petals. Two standing figures flank and look towards him. Above each of these figures are two more seated figures and then three more cross-legged, each half the size of the figures below. Below the lotus, a row of three standing figures flank a seated one. These figures have gold-tinted, blue, red, and other colorful skin tones.

Tantric Buddha Vairochana as Vajrasattva

c. 1150–1200

Central Tibet

gum tempera, ink, and gold on cloth
Overall: 111 x 73 cm (43 11/16 x 28 3/4 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1989.104
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

A mantra written behind the figures invokes their living presence in the thangka painting.

Description

The seated Buddha dominating the composition is identified as Vairochana because of his hand gesture, the mudra communicating supreme enlightenment in which the index finger of one hand is grasped by the fingers of the opposite hand. His golden color and the tiny vajra—a six-pronged ritual object representing a thunderbolt—balanced on top of his finger suggest that he is in the guise of Vajrasattva, the summation of all enlightened beings. In his crown is the image of a monk, who is probably the guru of the donor, the small monastic figure at the lower right next to the lotus pedestal.
  • ?–1989
    (David Tremayne, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1989–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Czuma, Stanislaw J. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63–147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 122 www.jstor.org
    Bly, Linda. An Important 12th Century Tibetan Thanka in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1991.
    “Recent Acquisitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art II: Departments of Asian Art: Supplement.” The Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1059 (June 1991): 417–424. Reproduced: p. 419, fig. VI www.jstor.org
    Czuma, Stanislaw J. “Some Tibetan and Tibet-related Acquisitions of the Cleveland Museum of Art” Oriental Art (Winter 1992–93) vol 38:4. Reproduced: p. 233; Mentioned: p. 232
    Rhie, Marylin M., Robert A. F. Thurman, and John Bigelow Taylor. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. New York: Tibet House New York in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1996. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 11, p. 48; cat. no. 222, p. 467
    Kossak, Steven, Jane Casey Singer, and Robert Bruce-Gardner. Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: cat. no. 13, fig. 8, p. 18, p. 79; Mentioned: cat. no. 13, p. 80 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
    Siren 採蓮 (Bulletin of Chiba City Museum of Art) No. 2, March 31, 1999. p. 52, no. 5
    Kossak, Steven. Painted Images of Enlightenment: Early Tibetan Thankas, 1050-1450. Mumbai: Marg Publications on behalf of National Centre for the Performing Arts, 2010. Reproduced: p. 60, fig. 40
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 216–217
  • Himalayan art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 1, 2021-February 6, 2022).
    Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 237). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 4-November 7, 2016).
    Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 5-September 15, 2013).
    Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (October 5, 1998-January 17, 1999); Museum Rietberg, Zürich (February 14-May 16, 1999).
    Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany (May 1-August 31, 1996); Fundació "la Caixa", Barcelona, Spain (October 1, 1996-January 12, 1997).
    Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).
  • {{cite web|title=Tantric Buddha Vairochana as Vajrasattva|url=false|author=|year=c. 1150–1200|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1989.104