Death of the Buddha Shakyamuni

This thangka is the culminating work in an important series of eastern Tibetan paintings that depict key events in the life of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. It preserves two interconnected moments in time. The first and most prominent is that of the Buddha’s death, which dominates the center of the painting. He lies on his right side in preparation for his final nirvana, and although his own expression is beatific and heavenly wonders appear in the sky above, the atmosphere from the human perspective seems one of quite understandable grief.

The second moment, however, reveals that grief is not the end, at least in the spiritual world of this painting, and neither is death itself for the Buddha, the “Blessed One” (Bhagavan). For just behind and to the right of the dying Buddha appears a magical scene that postdates his bodily death: the occasion of his cremation. Inside a white furnace, the funereal fire can be seen burning bright red. From the white urn there pours forth a miraculous rainbow of lights whose appearance is, in Tibetan Buddhist thought, linked with a given being’s attainment of immortality and enlightenment. And at the upper left of the painting Shakyamuni’s white, dome-topped reliquary also emits a rainbow of lights; these manifestations affirm the Buddha’s miraculous triumph over death.