Framed tangka of multi-armed, blue deity with a red consort depicted against a red aureole with orange flames. Cloth border. Samvara, on of the most important Mystic Contemplative Deities of Tibet, is shown here with twelve arms, symbolizing the twelve links of relativity, and four hears, symbolizing the four wisdoms. He holds outstretched behind him the flayed skin of the mad elephant of ignorance and many other symbols. His two primary arms cross behind the body of his female consort, Vajravarahi, holding the vajra and bell in a gesture of warning. He wears the ornaments of wrathful deities, including the crown of skulls and the garland of fifty-two severed head, symbolic of fifty-two kinds of neurotic hindrances. Above are two other Mystic Deities, Kalachakra and Hevajra. In the four corners are Dakinis (Angel-Buddhas, female “sky-goers”) who inspire initiates in the Tantric path, standing on prostrate bodies symbolizing the conquering of evil or heterodox concepts
