An evil demon (dMu) who causes dropsy. Watercolour by a Tibetan painter.

Reference:
47082i
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Description

The painting shows a dMu demon: dMu is the name of one of the early tribes inhabiting Tibet, and the name was later used for a certain type of earth demon. The demon, whose body colour is black, is walking and beating the kind of instrument which is used by Bon sorcerers: the instrument is a tambourine, with a greenish antelope-skin stretched over only one side of a wooden frame and held in position by strings drawn crosswise over the frame. He holds it in his left hand by means of a short wooden handle in the form of a phur bu (small dagger) with a human face carved on it (a similar one is illustrated by Nebesky-Wojkowitz, pl. IX). He is beating it with a curved wooden stick still used in Bon ceremonies. He is carrying a goat's horn in his girdle, and wearing a chaplet of bells round his neck. His rosary consists of lākṣā (lac) beads, and by his side are offerings of eggs and rice, attempts to propitiate him to avert the dropsy

Physical description

1 painting : watercolour on cloth ; watercolour 64 x 47 cm

References note

R. de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and demons of Tibet: the cult and iconography of the Tibetan protective deities, 's-Gravenhage 1956 (tambourine pp. 399-400 and pl. IX)
Marianne Winder, Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and catalogue of thankas, banners and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London 1989, p. 86, thankas banners and paintings no. 22

Reference

Wellcome Collection 47082i

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