Gentle Wanderer: Cloud in Himalayan Iconography
सप्रत्यग्रै: कुटजकुसुमै: कल्पितार्घायतस्मै
प्रीत: प्रीतिप्रमुखवचनंस्वागतंव्याजहार।।
ཀུན་དའི་ཟླ་ཡི་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འཛུམ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དེ་ལ་མཆོད་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་དགའ་བྱེད་བཞིན།
མཛའ་བ་མངོན་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་ཚིད་ནི་དེ་ལ་ལེགས་པར་འོངས་སམ་དགའ་བ་བརྗོད་པ་བཞིན།
He delights in offering the Madhavi flowers as a gift
And greets the arrival of clouds with sweet words
- "Meghaduta" (Cloud Messenger)
And greets the arrival of clouds with sweet words
- "Meghaduta" (Cloud Messenger)
"Cloud Messenger" Modern Illustration
"Guru Rinpoche", 18th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
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The clouds of reddish and pink hues symbolize the secret teachings,
surrounding the bronze mountain palace of the Lotus Born Master.
surrounding the bronze mountain palace of the Lotus Born Master.
A blue hidden treasure vase
"Great Accomplisher Avadhutipa," 18th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York
Avadhutipa (ཨ་ཝ་དྷཱུ་ཏི་པ་)
is the lineage master of the Sakya tradition's Dzogchen teachings
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Clouds that symbolize the teachings of Dharma are often believed to foreshadow the arrival of rain and hail, such as red clouds (སྤྲིན་དམར་) or rain clouds (ཆར་སྤྲིན་).
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Cloud clusters nearby
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Symbolizing Vajrapani, the golden-yellow clouds
The golden-yellow clouds are often associated with the principal deity
And yellow and brown clouds are also styles of clouds that obscure the sun
"The principal deity is like the sun"
"The King of Shambhala" 18th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
This is the seventh Dharma King of Shambhala Kingdom:
Jamgon Lhawang Dorje
The line of kings in Shambhala Kingdom is divided into:
"Seven Dharma Kings" and "Twenty-five Dharma King heirs"
They are the protectors of the Kalachakra lineage.
Jamgon Lhawang Dorje
The line of kings in Shambhala Kingdom is divided into:
"Seven Dharma Kings" and "Twenty-five Dharma King heirs"
They are the protectors of the Kalachakra lineage.
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White Cloud holds the golden wheel symbolizing the unity of teachings and royal authority.
White Cloud represents clear skies without rain.
White Cloud represents clear skies without rain.
"Happy Heavenly Mother" , 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York.
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Cold-colored clouds gather water but do not release it
The flames and clouds create a terrifying space together.
The flames and clouds create a terrifying space together.
"Southern Growth King"，17th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York.
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Black clouds
Mixed with thick fog and not dispersing
The cloud clusters here not only gather clouds, snow, wind, and thunder
But also indicate the anger of the gods
Mixed with thick fog and not dispersing
The cloud clusters here not only gather clouds, snow, wind, and thunder
But also indicate the anger of the gods
The exiled Yaksha King, overwhelmed by extreme yearning for his distant love, is unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood in the world; in his anguish and confusion, he can only seek the help of the clouds, as the celestial messengers of the god Indra, to deliver messages filled with passion and longing to his beloved in his dreams. The author of "The Cloud Messenger," Kalidasa（कालिदास；ནག་མོ་ཁོལ་）, presents the characteristics of clouds in South Asian culture within a specific scenario, while scholars and poets from the Himalayas and Tibet continue to expand on this complex symbol with further meanings. The cloud is a noble prince（ལྷ་སྲས་སྤྲིན་དཀར་）, as it is the companion of gods and the student of philosophers (often referred to as "cloud assembly" in Tibetan to symbolize devotees); the cloud is an elegant maiden（མཛེས་སྤྲིན་མ་）, with its colorful hues and graceful forms, serving as the source of inspiration for artists; the cloud is the guardian of essences（སྤྲིན་ཕུང་བྱིན་རླབས་ཅན་）, concealing the nectar of teachings and the divine form of spirits; the cloud is the messenger of the sky, heralding countless changes and witnessing the myriad forms of humanity.
Vajrabhairava, 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York
This painting combines all the basic styles of clouds (སྤྲིན་རིས་)
This work is derived from the Dege Mausoleum's Chize tradition.
This work is derived from the Dege Mausoleum's Chize tradition.
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Foreground clouds
Also known as "cloudscapes" （སྤྲིན་ལྗོངས་）and "cloud mountains"
Also known as "cloudscapes" （སྤྲིན་ལྗོངས་）and "cloud mountains"
（སྤྲིན་རི་）
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The void cloud is holding up the treasure bottle.
There are generally two types of clouds in the foreground, that is, fog clouds on the green ground and mountain clouds on the mountain peaks; while the sky clouds often rise from the foreground clouds into the sky. Artists usually use other colors to create shadow contrasts at the edges of white clouds (depending on the color of the main cloud), and use slender cloud lines (སྤྲིན་ཐིག་; known as cloud tails) to integrate characters and scenery into a complete space. In the artistic vocabulary of Tibetan areas, this shadow effect is called "བཅད་" (che). If we observe the images, we will find that the sky clouds often superimpose several different colored clouds to create a sense of space, derived from rising clouds from the world and the main clouds that have always been in the sky.
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The cloud screen （སྤྲིན་ཁེབ་）located on the central axis of the image depicts a lineage. The vertically arranged cloud screens show the relationship of inheritance. The bottom of the cloud screen is composed of a linear composition.
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As a part of the character and deity background, the color and arrangement of the clouds suggest the nature of the main deity. The clouds beneath Milarepa symbolize the pure heart of practice.
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The cross-shaped dark clouds beneath the auspicious mother represent a common style in guardian deity images. Some scholars believe that this style mimics a fortress.
The color combination of clouds and the classification of cloud patterns are a complex skill in Tibetan traditional painting. Different painting styles, even different artists' inheritances, will present very different styles of cloud patterns. Through the colors and shapes of clouds, people can completely judge the basic settings and textual context of the scenes in the images. Clouds have not only become decorations in the images, but have also formed a narrative system of their own. Taking clouds as the elders, all natural phenomena come together to form a family belonging to the sky.
"The Black Robe's Dark Day," 18th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York
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The black-robed Great Black Heaven's face is known as the "cloud-rolling face" (སྤྲིན་ཞལ་ཅན་).
This image was depicted by the Second Karmapa (1204-1283).
Meaning: "manifesting from the clouds without a physical body."
Drawing of Cloud-like Face
From GeGa LaMa's "Principles of Tibetan Art," 1983
《Vajrasattva》，16th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Vajrasattva（ནགས་གནས་）
Surrounded by multicolored clouds of the land of the Han
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Five-colored clouds（མཚམས་སྤྲིན་）
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Servants preparing fruit and monks listening to teachings
"The Great Accomplisher, Vajravarahi," 18th century, Ruben Museum of Art, New York.
In the biography of Padmasambhava（པད་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་）, he used clouds to solve the drought in the kingdom.
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The main god commonly invoked by the Karma Kagyu sect is Green Tara.
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The flowing cloud often lifted objects related to characters.
Here is a dragon female offering nectar in dedication.
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The dark clouds in the distance herald the coming of much-needed rain. Wealth and food will also come with the rainfall.
"The Sixth Panchen Lama", 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York
This painting is part of the "Panchen Lama lineage" series
The lineage includes not only the successive Panchen Lamas
but also some individuals believed to be the previous incarnations of the Panchen Lama
such as the King of Shambhala.
This painting is part of the "Panchen Lama lineage" series
The lineage includes not only the successive Panchen Lamas
but also some individuals believed to be the previous incarnations of the Panchen Lama
such as the King of Shambhala.
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The first part of the screen is composed of a cloud of mandalas, representing the empty space where the Guru and the main protective deity reside.
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The offering to the celestial maiden
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The second part of the screen
Is composed of clouds
A symbol of the earthly realm
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Tashilhunpo Monastery(The residence of the Panchen Lama)
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The third part of the screen
is composed of cloud mountains and flowing clouds
It is the hidden realm where the protectors reside.
is composed of cloud mountains and flowing clouds
It is the hidden realm where the protectors reside.
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The offering of a dragon race woman.
"Rescuing the Lion Difficulty Mother", 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York.
This painting is part of a series of "Rescuing the Eight Difficulty Mothers" and is considered a classic in Tibetan art history.
This painting is part of a series of "Rescuing the Eight Difficulty Mothers" and is considered a classic in Tibetan art history.
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Cloud image without shadows（ཚོ་ཤ་དཀར་）
Commonly used for embellishing close-up spaces
Sculpture works also often use this style.
Commonly used for embellishing close-up spaces
Sculpture works also often use this style.
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Cloud chart with shadows (ཕིང་བྲིས་)
Commonly used for drawing clouds in the void
Referred to by art historian David Jackson as "dazzling magical clouds"
Commonly used for drawing clouds in the void
Referred to by art historian David Jackson as "dazzling magical clouds"