One of my more recent Tantric paintings, this lighthearted and lovely mandala was over seven months in the making. Each leaf and blossom was individually painted. Tibetan spiritual art is customarily mounted in silk brocade rather than framed, and I have included in the artwork an intricate border richly embellished with gold leaf, crystals, tiger-eye cabochons and dimensional paint. More a thangka than a geometric mandala, it is nonetheless square with four protective stylized "gates" around the inner temple where the deities reside. In meditatiion, one can enter the world of Dombi and the Dakini and partake of their bliss.
The artistic inspiration for "Dombi and the Dakini" comes from the renown jungle paintings of Henri Rousseau as well as traditional Tibetan Buddhist mystical art. Dombi Heruka and Hamsi, his yogini partner, were certainly colorful subjects often portrayed riding around naked on a wild Bengal tigress as they went collecting alms. Although his life was surrounded by legend, he was in fact once a king who lived in Kashmir and the Himalayan regions of India during the 10th Century. He eventually became a Mahasiddha, a very great Tantric Master, and the author of several important treatises.
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