Red Mara Wheel of Life Tibetan Thangka
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 the demon Mara. Mara is crowned in skulls of impermanence & is draped in a flayed tiger skin.   At the top of the mandala is 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 characterize the worlds of suffering & dissatisfaction. Buddha called this state Samsara.
By Romio Shrestha &  Ian Baker: Celestial Gallery
Handpainted by monks in Tibet