Bhaishajyaguru, the Medicine Buddha, presides with his entourage in this portable scroll painting (thangka), which is painted in a central Tibetan style that combines Newar, Western Tibetan, Indian, and Central Asian styles. The Medicine Buddha as patron of healing gained particular popularity in Tibet, but in a broader sense, he is a manifestation of the metaphor of the Buddha as the master physician who seeks to eliminate suffering and root out the three poisons of desire, aversion, and ignorance. He appears here with a brilliant blue body and the physical appearance and robes of a Buddha, qualities reflected in his title, the Healing Master with Lapis Lazuli Radiance. The blue of lapis lazuli is said to resemble the sky and prayers to the Medicine Buddha associate his color with wisdom and compassion "as vast as the sky." His left hand rests in his lap in the gesture of meditation (dhyana mudra) while his right hand holds a medicinal myrobalan plant, his distinctive attribute. He is flanked on the left and right by the red Suryaprabha and the white Chandraprabha, bodhisattvas of the sun and moon, respectively.<\/p>\n
Surrounding figures include, in the top row, the goddess Praj\u00f1aparamita (red, four arms) flanked by seven buddhas in monks' robes with the bodhisattva Manjushri brandishing a sword on the right. Below and surrounding the main figures, other groups of deities include bodhisattvas adorned with jewelry and peaceful in appearance and the guardians of the ten directions mounted on animal mounts. In rows along the bottom, twelve yaksha generals each hold a mongoose in their left hand and their unique attribute in their right, while the four world protectors (lokapalas) appear in the corners, depicted in Central Asian dress. Together, these figures form the retinue of the Bhaishajyaguru mandala.<\/p>\n
Directly below Bhaishajyaguru, the presence of Padmasambhava, the Indian adept who introduced Buddhism to Tibet, may link this work to the Nyingma tradition, which holds him in particularly high esteem. Although it does not identify the donor by name, the inscription on the reverse also invokes Padmasambhava, as well as containing a dedication to Bhaishajyaguru and a conventional sequence of prayers, confession, worship, and supplication that the donor be reborn in the heaven of the Seven Medicine Buddhas.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"104 \u00d7 82.7 cm (41 \u00d7 32 1\/2 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":82,"height":104,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Pigment and gold on cotton","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Kate S. Buckingham Fund","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Pratapaditya Pal with contributions by Lobsang Lhalungpa, Thubten J. Norbu, Robert Sachs, Robert A.F. Thurman, and Tashi Woser, Tibet: Tradition and Change, (The Albuquerque Museum, 1997), pp. 86-7, (ill.) pl. 43.\n\nPratapaditya Pal with contributions by Amy Heller, Oskar von Hinuber, and Gautama V. Vajracharya, Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2003), pp. 190-192: pl. 125.\n\nTanya Treptow, \"Bhaishajyaguru Mandala\" in The Silk Road and Beyond: Travel, Trade and Transformation, Museum Studies 33, 1, p. 78, (ill.) p. 79.\n\nJames Cuno, Museums Matter: In Praise of the Encyclopedic Museum (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 2011), p. 66, (ill.) pl. 3.\n\nDawn Hall, Tibet: Tradition and Change (The Albuquerque Museum, 1997), pp. 86-87, pl. 43.","exhibition_history":"Albuquerque, The Albuquerque Museum, Tibet: Tradition and Change, October 18, 1997-May 24, 1998.\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, April 5, 2003- August 17, 2003 and Washington, DC, The Freer Gallery of Art & Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, October 18, 2003- January 11, 2004.","provenance_text":"Namkha Dorjee Bodhichitta Gallery, London; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, January 24, 1996 [gallery invoice; copy in curatorial object file] .","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":8,"fiscal_year":1996,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":0,"color":{"h":5,"l":30,"s":38,"percentage":0.0024039972617189535,"population":2007},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of Asia","department_id":"PC-7","artist_id":null,"artist_title":null,"alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[],"artist_titles":[],"category_ids":["PC-7","PC-837"],"category_titles":["Arts of Asia","Arts of Asia 100"],"term_titles":["Himalayan","thangka","painting","asian art","tankas (scrolls or banners)"],"style_id":"TM-5376","style_title":"Himalayan","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-5376"],"style_titles":["Himalayan"],"classification_id":"TM-16428","classification_title":"thangka","alt_classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-26","TM-12144"],"classification_ids":["TM-16428","TM-9","TM-26","TM-12144"],"classification_titles":["thangka","painting","asian art","tankas (scrolls or banners)"],"subject_id":null,"alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":[],"subject_titles":[],"material_id":null,"alt_material_ids":[],"material_ids":[],"material_titles":[],"technique_id":null,"alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":[],"technique_titles":[],"theme_titles":["Arts of Asia 100"],"image_id":"541a96f7-faf6-1359-264c-5b4a6226bcf1","alt_image_ids":["ce6b7094-cd1e-14a6-93cd-bdb4e3e59000"],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1996.29"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Medicine Buddha Bhaishajyaguru With His Mandala Retinue"],"weight":1811,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-09-02T15:25:00-05:00","updated_at":"2026-09-02T18:27:12-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:51:18-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}