Red Mara Wheel of Life
35" x 19" framed. Painting: 18" x 13"
The Wheel of life probably has the oldest ancestry of any Tibetan form of scroll painting. It was said to have been described by the Buddha himself. It represents in pictorial form the fundamental principles of Tibetan Buddhism. The Wheel of life shows the six spheres of existence within which sorrowful lives take place and to which man is chained by desire, ignorance and hatred. The circle is held by demon Mara. Mara  is crowned in skulls of impermance & is draped in a flayed tiger skin.   At the top of the mandala is the God's' ephemeral paradise characterized by Spiritual complacency. The outer circle shows the twelve link chain of causation which binds living beings to the misery of the inner circle of six worlds.
At the mandala's center the intertwined pig, rooster, & snake are symbols of ignorance , greed  & aggression. They characteize the worlds of suffering & dissatisfaction. Buddha called this state Samsara.
By Romio Shrestha &  Ian Baker: Celestial Gallery
Handpainted by monks in Tibet