Initiation Card 'Tsakali' Door Keeper (circa 1420), Tibet, Art Print from the Original on Canvas

Original public domain art from The MET Museum, digitally enhanced in high resolution.  Opaque watercolour on paper. Tibet, early fiftheenth century.

Original dimensions: 16.0 cm x 14.5 cm.

Tsakali cards were used by a practitioner, usually a monk or nun, under the guidance of a teacher to evoke a Buddhist deity. As these teachers travelled from one monastery to the next, using sets of portable tsakali cards was an efficient way of presenting the vast pantheon of Buddhist gods.

On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is a set of twenty-five tsakali cards - like this one -  that together form a mandala (translated from Sanskrit as a sacred circle or circular object). These cards were painted by a Nepali artist for a Tibetan patron probably affiliated with the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. The style of the figures and many of the motifs used show especially close relationships to the Nepali-style wall paintings of the Gyantse Kumbum.

Each card has a Tibetan letter on its reverse side to organise the sequence of the set. If the first card is placed in the middle and the following cards are arranged clockwise, as is auspicious, a mandala can be laid out on the ground to create a purified sacred space much like that of a temple.

The deities shown on these initiation cards include the Tathagata Buddhas, various bodhisattvas, fierce protectors, and the six possible realms of rebirth seen across the bottom. 

Tsakali cards were used individually to heal, to teach, and to align a disciple with a deity from the vast pantheon. First, the disciple sought permission from the deity, either through a dream or under the guidance of a teacher. The associated ritual involved visualising the deity as described in recited mantras (incantations) and with an image, in this case, the deity represented on the tsakali.

The bodhisattvas Samantabhadra (male) and Sambantabhadri (female), appearing in the upper corners, have as their esoteric counterpart the central and most important figure, Vajrasattva.

While there is no text explaining this mandala, the Maha Vairochana sutra tells us that Vajrasattva should be venerated in order to purify the mind, prior to undertaking advanced tantric techniques. This accords with the inscriptions on the back of each card, which associate mental states with each deity and delusions, such as pride, jealousy, and hatred, with each of the possible rebirths. It is remarkable that these cards, perhaps the earliest set of tsakali that survives intact, together form a mandala suitable for the ritual of initiation.

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