Exquisite Handpainted Thangka of Guru Dragpur in Gold and Vegetable Color.

Guru Dragpur is a fierce form of Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, the founder and well-spring of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. Guru Dragpur is also closely associated with the powerful Vajrakilaya deity and cycle of teachings, of which Padmasambhava was a great master and left many texts on the subject.

Very wrathful in appearance, Guru Dragpur is red in colour, with one face and three round eyes, he has a gaping mouth and bared fangs and flaming hair rising upward. The right hand aloft grasps a gold vajra scepter and the left a black scorpion—both arms are extended to the sides. Adorned with a crown of five skulls, gold earrings, bracelets, necklaces and a snake garland, he wears a string of human heads.

An elephant hide covers the shoulders with a tiger skin wrapped about the waist. Without legs, the lower body is composed of a large kila (Tibetha: phur ba), three-edged peg, extending downward from the gaping mouth of a makara sea creature. Standing on a triangular base adorned with skulls, above a sun disc and lotus blossom, he is surrounded by the swirling flames of pristine awareness.