Dark blue in colour with one face and four hands, the first pair perform the 'Daemon Subduing' mudra (hand gesture) at the heart. The second pair of hands hold a vajra upraised in the right and a lasso in the left. Very wrathful in appearance with large bulging eyes and hair flowing upwards like flame he wears jewel and snake ornaments and a lower garment of tiger skin. On the back of the white daemon Aparajita - with four hands and an elephant head, he stands atop a sun disc and multi-coloured lotus surrounded by the flames of pristine awareness.

At the top center is the buddha Shakyamuni, to the left the buddha of the past and to the right the bodhisattva Maitreya, the buddha of the future. To the left is the bodhisattva Manjushri and below is the Lama Tsongkhapa the founder of the Gelugpa School. To the right is the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with four hands. Below that is Sakya Pandita of the Sakya School.

At the bottom center inside a rainbow sphere is Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, founder of the Nyingma School, seated on a lotus flower. On the left is Karmapa, wearing a black hat, of the Kamtsang Kagyu. Drikung Jikten Gonpo, the founder of Drikungpa, is on the right. At the left corner is the wealth deity Jambhala, yellow in colour, with one face and two hands holding a bijapuraka fruit and a mongoose.

In the right bottom corner is the deceased male individual for whom the painting was commissioned. The small figure, wearing white for purity is shown seated on a lotus indicating the wish of his relatives that he be reborn in a Buddhist pureland such as the Copper-coloured Mountain of Padmasambhava, or Sukhavati of Buddha Amitabha. The central figure, Vajrapani, was either the Tutelary Deity of the deceased or chosen as the subject on the advice of a lama for the purpose of removing obstacles in the path of a better rebirth. The gold paint used for the robes and ornaments is meant as an offering on behalf of the deceased.

Vajrapani Bhutadamara is found in the Kriya, Carya and Anuttarayoga tantras and the iconographic form represented here indicates that it belongs to the two lower tantras. All the names of the deities and lamas have been finely written with gold lettering.

J.Watt 5-98

In the 19th century Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, the great master of the Rime (non-sectarian) movement propigated this particular form of Vajrapani which had previously been only popular with the Sakyapa school, amongst all the lineages. This painting seems to date from the late 19th century before Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche passed away in 1892.

M. Mokotoff 5-98