With a wizened face betraying the years he wears the patched orange robes of a fully ordained monk and a yellow monk's cap. The right hand upraised performs the mudra of explication of the Teaching and the left holds a book close to the heart. Seated with a meditation cloak wrapped about the legs he rests on several layers of ornate cushions in front of an elaborate backrest of silk brocades.

At the top left is the long-life Chakrasamvara, white in colour, with one face and two hands holding a long-life vase in each crossed at the heart embracing the consort red Vajrayogini. In vajra posture they are seated on a lotus blossom amongst trails of spreading pink clouds. To the right the root guru Khedrup Sangye Yeshe is seated on a bed of lotus leaves, wearing monastic robes and a yellow pandita hat. The right hand performs the earth-witness mudra and the left is placed in the lap in the mudra of meditation.

At the middle right, dwelling inside a rainbow sphere, is the bodhisattva Maitreya, orange in colour, holding the stem of a lotus with the left hand - the blossom supporting a gold water flask. An inquisitive mahasiddha and a reverential monk are seated to the front.

At the bottom left is the deity of wealth and guardian of the northern direction, Vaisravana, yellow in colour, holding aloft a victory banner in the right hand and a mongoose in the lap with the left; seated on a white snow lion with a green mane. To the right is the wrathful protector Baiktse Chen, red, with one face and two hands holding an upraised sword in the right hand and a heart and spear in the left; clothed in the garb of a warrior.

The Panchen Lama line of incarnation (tulku) was started by the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1667. Regarded as emanations of Amitabha their principal seat of power is the Tashi Lhunpo monastery of Southern Tibet.

Jeff Watt 10-98