Impressions of the Simihavaktra Dakini

¶ … impressions of the Simihavaktra Dakini in the Avery Brundage Collection of the Asian Collection of the San Francisco Museum. Also, the author will lay out the purpose of a 15-page class paper further analyzing the work .

The work itself is 18th Sino-Tibetan and made from lacquered wood and is 56 inches high. Simhavaktra, also known as Simhamukha or as Sinhamukhi, is commonly regarded as one of the principal fierce manifestations of Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava was a sage guru from the area of O?

iy-na (modern Swat) who is said by Buddhists said to transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and the neighboring countries in the 8th century CE. She is connected with the many ceremonies of the Dzogchen tradition in Buddhism. As a fierce dakini, she is a tantric deity that is described as both a female embodiment of enlightened energy and as one of the Bardo Thodol's Phramenma. This is likely a group of female deities that are most likely of Bon origin, a religion of pre-Buddhist Tibet that was syncretised into normative Tibetan Buddhism. She is most usually depicted as a maroon, wine, or smoke colored lioness associated with the East. As Simhavaktra, the goddess is also seen as an attendant of Lha-Mo. In this case she is depicted as carrying both a kapala and a kartrika (Gordon 2002, 58).

It can be very hard to identify a deity correctly. This is a problem that comes from our Western origins. However, it must be remembered that the deity's form in question was fixed according to set according to Tibetan rules that make sense in that culture to its practitioners. Indeed, to the Western newcomer such figures may seem very alien, especially because of the convention of showing the many gods in close poses of close sexual embrace with female partners as well as by adopting terrible and fierce forms that are part human and part animal. In particular, Westerners are not in tune with the idea of religious revelations coming to Tibbetan Buddhist holy practitioners in tantric sexual embrace. However, in Eastern parlance, this is to emulate the creative and regenerative actions of the deities on earth that happen in the heavenly realms on the way to Nirvana (Zwalf 2011) .

However, from the Tibbetan Buddhist point-of-view, these representations are symbols of the highest importance. In the sexual forms they represent the varios components of liberation, namely knowledge and compassion that are joined to achieve the elimination of all opposites into the embrace of the Yin and the Yang. The fierce and wrathful aspects of the deity are symbols of the power that the aspirant brings to their liberation and that protects them against the dangers on that path. Meditation on deities such as this their entourages is an intense and arduous progression. However, it is by this journey that one may become identified with the Absolute heavenly power. In this way, the fierce deities are manifestations of that Absolute power in one of its emanations. However, the adepts do not always serve the same exalted end at the end of the journey (ibid).

The dakinis are both consorts of yi-dams, that is, a fully enlightened being that is the focus of and adept's personal meditation during a religious retreat or for life and initiation goddesses that grant super human powers. They represent the goddesses of the seasons, that is the Five Sisters of Long Life as well as the eight personified goddesses of the various ritual offerings. Tibbetan Lamaism has also absorbed many Hindu gods and goddesses which are often shown beneath the Buddhist deities. These include serpent spirits from Indian and Tibetan traditions that can serve as gods and goddesses of wealth as well as the guardians of the cardinal points of direction (ibid).

Research Paper Purpose and Design

This author proposes a paper that will further investigate the manifestations and emanations of the Simihavaktra Dakini as a meditational fetish that a Tibbetan Lama would use on their way to enlightenment. It will explore the tantric path and its collateral use of symbols of violence and peace to achieve a perfect balance. In this way, the author hopes to increase their knowledge and appreciation of Tibbetan Buddhism and its symbols.