Attributes of Putra-miṅ-sriṅ in a "rgyan tshogs" banner. Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter.

The painting shows the attributes of Putra-miṅ-sriṅ, three Tibetan sibling protectors, who are ritual functionaries (Tibetan las-mkhan). They are two brothers and one sister, the children of Karmapaṇḍita, and they are called Putra Nagpo, Bhadra Nagpo, and their sister Sinmo Ralchikma. They are functionaries in the retinue of Pañjaranātha, a form of the Protector deity Mahākāla. Putra Nagpo is usually depicted holding a long bamboo staff as a sword, and a skull cap full of blood; Bhadra Nagpo holds a cudgel and a heart; while Sinmo Ralchikma holds a golden razor and intestines: some of these attributes are shown in the present painting. They have a particular affinity with the southerly borderland region of Mon in Tibet, where Dalai Lama VI was born in 1683

At the bottom centre, a large offering cake (gtor-ma) to the protectors, surrounded by a flame aureole, grows out of a dish filled with objects that look like teeth. On top of the flames is the emblem of the sun and moon surmounted by an umbrella of power. This is surmounted by a skull bowl filled with blood, which is one of seven skull bowls, the others being filled with sense organs, kidneys, a liver and other organs, and a fire pyramid

Below the seven skull bowls, on a level with the sun and moon, are two terracotta pots filled with medicinal herbs, of which the right one includes myrobalan. The pots are flanked by king's and queen's earrings, crossed incense sticks, and conch shells. Below the pots are two further skull bowls, filled with nectar (green) on the left and blood (red) on the right

In the lower half, on the left and right are six black animals. On the left, a yak or bull is trampling on a human body; below is a saddled ram, and at the bottom a horse trampling on the human skeleton. On the right, a donkey looks at a bone (or drum, or both); below, a piece of coral; below the coral, a dog devouring a human being (though Winder identifies the animal as a makara or sea monster); under it, a rhinoceros horn, and at the bottom another horse trampling on the human skeleton. Between the animals and the gtor-ma are, on the left, two elephant tusks, a human baby, and a fly-whisk, and on the right a blue demon in a dancing attitude wearing a red cap and a red loincloth

On the bottom level, on the left edge is a Tantric practitioner's outfit consisting of a hat, collar, wide-sleeved robe and face apron, with a small ritual dagger, while matching them on the on the right edge are a scimitar, and a warrior's costume of helmet and coat of mail. The Tantric magician's outfit and the warrior's armour represent the traditional companions of the Putra-miṅ-sriṅ: a hundred magicians on the left lifting their ritual daggers, and a hundred armed men on the right

At the top, growing out of the central blood-filled skull bowl is a bamboo tree: these are attributes of Putra Nagpo. Between the bowls are shinbone trumpets and conch trumpets. These are the musical instruments that would be used during a ceremony in honour of the three deities. On either side of the bamboo tree is an eagle. Above them, suspended along the top, are the flayed hides of a wolf, leopard, tiger, and jackal, garnished with garlands of entrails, eyes on stalks, and tongues

Most of the banners in this series show entrails: one of the Buddhist standard meditations is the Meditation on death, which includes the contemplation of rotting corpses during ten stages of decay. In this banner however the emphasis is on bones, suggesting that the backgrounds represent a cemetery or charnel house

[Tibet]

1 painting : distemper on linen ; distemper 62 x 47 cm.

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, pp. 94-95, thankas banners and paintings no. 34

Gyurme Dorje, 'A rare series of Tibetan banners', in N. Allan (ed.), Pearls of the orient: Asian treasures of the Wellcome Library, London 2003, pp. 161-177 (p. 169 and fig. 8)

Wellcome Collection 47064i