A THANKGA OF HAYAGRIVA, Tibet, 19th ct., framed. Depicted here with powerful Garuda wings and the typical green horse head in his hair, his six hands holding weapons and symbols needed for his activity as a guardian, in his right: Vajra axe, sandelwood staff, and lotus blossom, his upper left hand showing the threatening gesture while holding a rope, in the other two hands holding the sword of wisdom and a blood-filled kapala, wearing a tiger pelt as his loin cloth, an elephant skin over his back, and skin from human hands below his neck, all three symbolising the disengagement from the three spiritual poisons: greed, hatred, pride. With his eight legs standing on human beings symbolising obstructive energies. This thangka is an "open" Mandala, meaning that four other emanations of Hayagriva are assembled around the centred one, painted in the four mandala colours, white, blue, red, and green. Also depicted are the four furies as guardians of the mandala gates, horrific emanations holding human hearts in their left hands, symbolising the end of desire, holding various weapons in their right hands. Appearing above Hayagriva are Buddha Amitabha, Padmasambhava, Atisha, and Tsongkhapa as well as Tathagata Vajrasattva in the upper left corner, with Sitatara in the upper right corner. - Property from an important South German private collection, assembled between 1968 and 2005 mostly from Schoettle East Asian Art and Joachim Baader, Munich - Cf. Art of Thangka - Publ. Thangka Calender 2013, July, Wisdom, Dec. 2012, Description by Dr. Olaf Czaja - Cf. from the Hahn Kwang- ho Collection; Tanaka Kimiaki (Ed.), The Hahn Cultural Foundation, Seoul; 2001:57 - D. I. Lauf, Eine Ikonographie des tibetischen Buddhismus; Akademische Druck und Verlagsanstalt Graz/Austria, 1979: 55a+b - Wear