Mandala of the Buddhist Protective Deity Sitatapatra, Tibet, early 16th century, gouache on cloth, Yale University Art Gallery, S. Wells Williams Collection, Bequest of F. Wells Williams, B.A. 1879, by exchange, and bequest of Florence Baiz van Volkenburgh in memory of her husband, Thomas Sedgwick van Volkenburgh, B.A. 1866, by exchange

Buddhas, Guardians, and Guides: How to Read Tibetan Paintings
Denise Patry Leidy, Yale University Art Gallery
Online program, February 8, 12:30pm

Although known as early as the 7th century, there is little visual evidence for Buddhist practice in Tibet until the 11th when paintings and sculptures illustrate an astonishing array of enlightened beings such as buddhas and bodhisattvas, guardians and guides. After introducing the primary types of deities featured in Tibetan practices, Dr. Denise Patry Leidy, the Ruth and Bruce Dayton Curator of Asian Art, highlights a newly acquired, and spectacular, 16th-century Tibetan mandala focused on the protective deity Sitatapatra (White Parasol), a guardian against malign supernatural forces. Recently conserved and on view for the first time, this mandala was produced in Ngor Monastery in central Tibet, famed for its painting workshops. It was commissioned by one of the abbots of this establishment in honor of an earlier teacher.

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