Brahmarupa Mahakala

Tibet

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 964

Brahmarupa, a benign form of the wrathful deity Mahakala, is shown as a bearded nomadic ascetic, sitting on a corpse, wearing a bone apron and holding a thighbone trumpet and a skull cup. A protector of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, he is credited with introducing the Hevajra Tantra, an important Vajrayana text, to the Sakya hierarchs.

Brahmarupa Mahakala, Brass, Tibet

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