‘Secret Accomplishment’ Hayagrīva

Bogd Khan Palace Museum 2-81

The wrathful red Hayagrīva with three faces and six arms has three staring eyes and upswept hair. Amidst a mass of flames, he crushes eight nāgas beneath his eight feet. Above his red, green and white heads protrude three green horse’s heads, the characteristic symbol of Hayagrīva, the Horse-Necked one. His right hands hold a vajra, a khaṭvāṅga and a sword, while his upper left hand is in the threatening gesture and his remaining two left hands hold a spear and a noose. Adorned with a bone wheel on his chest and other bone ornaments, he wears a crown of five dry skulls, a necklace of fifty freshly severed heads and a snake around his neck. He is attired in an elephant skin and a tiger-skin skirt. Seated above on the clouds is Padmasambhava, the founder of the Nyingma tradition. Hayagrīva is the main tutelary deity of the Nyingmapas, later adopted into the Gelug tradition. At the bottom centre is Thinley Gyalpo (T. ’phrin las rgyal po), one of the five kings, riding a snow lion. He is flanked on the left by Begtse Dharmapāla and on the right by Damchen Garba Nagpo riding a goat which crosses over a sea of blood on top of Mount Sumeru.