Tantric Murals of Lukhang Palace 1- The Temple2- A detail from the murals in the Dalai Lamas’ privat

Tantric Murals of Lukhang Palace 1- The Temple2- A detail from the murals in the Dalai Lamas’ private meditation chapel, painted circa 1700, depicting yogis in 23 yoga positions, titled “The Secret Keys of the Channels and Winds.” 3-  A detail from the murals in the Dalai Lamas’ private meditation chapel, painted circa 1700, depicting Guru Rinpoche or Padmasambhava accepting obeisance after he has subjugated the Lu King, or Naga King (a serpent spirit).4- A Tibetan Medicine Thangka, or scroll painting, depicting the traditional Tibetan medical system and its representations of subtle physiological processes essential to optimal health.5- Lamas at Talung in Sikkim, East India.On an island in a pond behind the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet sits the Lukhang Temple, or “Temple to the Serpent Spirits,” a secret meditation space created by the Dalai Lama in the 17th century. For hundreds of years, this temple was closed to anyone but the Dalai Lama himself. Vibrant murals covered its walls, depicting yogis in impossible-looking poses, gurus and kings, crystals surrounded by rainbows, and the vagina that gave birth to the world. Used to initiate Dalai Lamas into yogic and tantric practices in the Dzogchen school of Tibetan Buddhism, very few got to see these murals.Now, though, images of these long-hidden murals are accessible the world over, thanks to American photographer Thomas Laird, who in the spring of 1986 was the first to ever shoot inside this sacred chamber. A new exhibit at London’s Wellcome Collection, Tibet’s Secret Temple: Body, Mind and Meditation in Tantric Buddhism, puts life-size digital facsimiles of the Lukhang’s murals and their esoteric teachings on display. The temple itself was constructed as a three-dimensional mandala, a sacred geometrical shape representing the Buddhist universe, with three tiers represent the three dimensions of enlightenment — outer reality, inner experience, and a transcendent dimension beyond time and space. (all images courtesy of Thomas Laird and the Wellcome Collection and used with permission) -- source link

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