A thangka of the Three-Deity Shadakshari Avalokiteshvara — the four-armed “All-Seeing Lord” flanked by his attendants Manidhara and Shadakshari. Across the top runs a lineage of teachers in chronological order, among them the Indian master Atisha and his disciple Dromton, while the Five Wisdom Buddhas are set within a landscape of coloured rock and mountain, interspersed with yogis and rishis.
Orange Manjushri appears at the upper left and wrathful Krodha Vajrapani at the right; together with Avalokiteshvara they form the Three Lords of the World. At the lower left, three monks sit beside Green Tara and red Hayagriva; opposite them, before an array of shrine offerings, are another monastic and five lay donors. The composition thus weaves together three iconographic programmes: the Shadakshari triad, the Three Lords of the World, and the Five Wisdom Buddhas.
