Vajrabhairava is a fierce manifestation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom.

Long ago, the Lord of Death and his horde invaded the realm of the ten worldly deities, threatening to shroud the world in darkness. Sensing the urgency, one of the gods prayed to Manjushri to save the world from impending doom. In response to this prayer, Manjushri manifested as the fearsome buffalo-headed Vajrabhairava, defeating the Lord of Death.

Vajrabhairava is an important tantric meditation deity, whose initiations were originally only preserved in the secret earthly realms of Uddiyana and Shambala. The Indian adept Lolita traveled to Uddiyana in pursuit of enlightenment and discovered the teachings of Vajrabhairava there. Free to examine the instructions, but forbidden to take them away with him, he is said to have memorized their entire contents, writing them down and transmitting them to others once he returned to India.

Vajrabhairava’s two horns represent the two truths that the Buddha taught– conventional and ultimate. His thirty-four arms together with his body, speech and mind represent the thirty-seven limbs of enlightenment. The sixteen creatures under his feet represent different misconceptions, while his sixteen legs represent the respective antidotes of each of these misconceptions.

The thangka comes framed in a traditional silk brocade border.