Brahmarupa Mahakala

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brahmarupa, a benign form of the wrathful deity Mahakala, is shown as a bearded nomadic ascetic, sitting on a corpse, wearing a bone apron and holding a thighbone trumpet and a skull cup. A protector of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, he is credited with introducing the Hevajra Tantra, an important Vajrayana text, to the Sakya hierarchs.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art