With a stern look and large staring eyes, one face and two hands, he holds in the right a victory banner of variously coloured fluttering silks - a gift of the gods. The left holds to the side a dark brown mongoose spitting a flood of coloured jewels onto the moon disc below. Adorned with a gold and jewel crown, earrings, body armour of gold, garments of various colours, pants and boots, he sits in a relaxed posture with the right leg extended atop an orange snow lion. Seated above a white moon disc and multi-coloured lotus he is surrounded by a blue-orange nimbus and areola of orange flames.

At the top center is the wrathful bodhisattva Vajrapani, blue, with one face and two hands holding a vajra and lasso. At the left is the lama Khache Rinchen Dorje, wearing the robes of a monk and a pandita hat. With the right hand he performs the mudra of explication and holds a book in the left. In the left corner is the wealth deity Yellow Jambhala holding a bijapuraka fruit in the right hand and a mongoose in the left. At the right is the lama Lhodrag Drupchen attired as a monk and wearing a lotus hat. With the hands placed at the heart in the Dharma Teaching mudra he holds the stems of two lotus flowers supporting a vajra and bell. In the right corner is Black Jambhala, holding a skullcup in the right hand and a mongoose in the left, wrathful and naked, in a standing posture.

With two at the top and six at the bottom the eight attendant horsemen accompany Vaisravana. Wearing the garb of warriors each has their own colour, unique object in the right hand, a mongoose in the left and ride on a horse. At the lower right, showered with wealth, three monks on elaborate cushion seats hold incense and scarves as an offering.

"With vajra armour, a garland of jewel ornaments and the beautiful heavenly banner - fluttering, illuminated in the middle of a hundred thousand Wealth Bestowers; homage to Vaisravana, chief among the protectors of the Teaching." (Nyingma liturgical verse).

Vaisravana, leader of the Yaksha race, is a worldly guardian worshipped as both a protector and benefactor. He, with his wife - a naga princess, lives on the north side of the lower slopes of mount Meru in the Heaven of the Four Great Kings in a sumptuous palace bathed in green emerald light. As the leader of the Four Direction Guardians, he at the head of the others, swore an oath of protection before the buddha Shakyamuni. The stories and iconography of the Four Guardians arise primarily from the Mahayana sutras and are common to all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Lord Atisha popularized the meditation practice of Vaisravana in the 11th century.

Jeff Watt 10-98