Mandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight Syllables

Mandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight Syllables

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This intricate painting served a central role in an Esoteric Buddhist ritual intended to prevent natural disasters and illness. The primary deity, the bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri in Sanskrit), appears in the middle of the central white orb. Immediately surrounding him are eight Sanskrit letters written in gold, representing the eight sounds of the incantation at the heart of this ritual as well as Monju’s eight youthful messengers. Four protective, wrathful deities known as Wisdom Kings appear just outside this most sacred sector of the mandala. The twenty-four subsidiary deities who occupy the outermost band consist of eight bodhisattvas, eight celestials (corresponding to the ordinal and cardinal directions of the compass), and their eight concubines, for a total of thirty-seven deities across three sectors of the painting.


Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight SyllablesMandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight SyllablesMandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight SyllablesMandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight SyllablesMandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight Syllables

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.