Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism - the Sakya Monastery of ...

the ceiling in June 1995.Over the windows are the paintings of the Indianscholars known as the Six Ornaments and theTwo Supreme Ones. Over the west side windows,beginning with the painting closest to theshrine, are Arya Nagarjuna, Middle Way proponentand retriever of the Perfection of Wisdomsutras, Arya Asanga, retriever and commentatorupon the Five Treatises of Maitreya, Dignaga,the great logician and author, andShakyaprabha, an upholder of the Vinaya tradition.Over the windows on the east side are:Aryadeva, follower of the Nagarjuna in the MiddleWay and author of the Four Hundred Verses,Vasubandhu, younger brother of Asanga andYogacara exponent, Dharmakirti, logician andauthor, and Gunaprabha, Vinaya master.Artist Dhawa Dhondup from Dharamsala, India,painted them in the Winter and Spring of 1994.main Shrine was made in Nepal and painted bySakya Monastery members.CEILING ARTBefore any of the walls or ceiling could bepainted, the leaks in the ceiling had to be repairedand a special canvas wallpaper applied.Once the canvas was in place, the “Seattle sky”was painted on the ceiling by local painters. Thedepiction of the sky is based on descriptions inreligious texts.On the ceiling are the four mandalas of the fourHevajra transmissions. Hevajra is the most importantdeity in the Sakya School’s main practice,the Lamdre. These Hevajra mandalas arebased upon photos from Ngor Monastery, Tibet,which were then scanned into a computer andrestored by John Vichorek. He restored themusing a computer (the colors in the photos werefaded or had been sullied with smoke and someparts of the mandalas had been destroyed) andhad them printed on photographic paper muchthe way billboards are made. In this way, traditionalTibetan art was restored using moderntechnology. The mandalas were put in place onART ON THE ENTRANCE WALL OF THESHRINE ROOMThe Four Great Kings are at eye level in the entrancewall of the Shrine Room. The EasternKing is Dhritarashtra in white holding a guitar,the Southern King is Virudhaka in blue holding asword, the Western King is Virupaksha in redholding a stupa, and the Northern King isVaishravana in yellow holding a jewel-spittingmongoose. These paintings were created byartist Dhawa Dhondup.Above the Four Great Kings is the Lamdre LamaLineage of His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya,Head Lama of the Sakya Order, and His HolinessTrinly Sakyapa, Associate Head Lama.The Lamdre is the central teaching of the SakyaSchool and has been on this earth since thegreat siddha Virupa, c. 7th century. The Lineage,containing 48 figures, begins in the centerof the painting with the Buddha Vajradhara inblue. Next is his consort Nairatmya in flames inthe upper left. Next to her is Virupa, the first humanto receive the teaching. On the far right ofthe top row is Sachen Kunga Nyingpo. TheLama Lineage continues from left the right untilthe bottom row, where the final three lamas inthe lineage are portrayed in the center of the rowPage 15 Guide to Main Shrine Room7