Wind of Flowers, Rain of Blessings: Weather in Himalayan Art
Rangjung Dorje, the third Karmapa (རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་; 1284-1339), composed the line: "འདོད་པའི་ཆར་ཆེར་འབབ་པ་དང། མེ་ཏོག་བསིལ་བྱེད་མཆོད་བྱ་དཀར།"—which translates as "The wind of flowers brings snow as well, when the desired rain falls." In that verse, "the desire for rain" signifies the imminent arrival of the protectors, whereas "the wind of flowers" alludes to heavenly flowers descending. According to the Seventh Dalai Lama's secret transmission, this set of seven images represents the Twenty-four Holy Places. Within the set, three images show eight holy places each, symbolizing the Body Mandala.
The primary deity is Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. These eight sacred places, called the "Eight Cool Places" (བསིལ་ས་བརྒྱད་), are situated so that the "Fruit of the Wind" (རླུང་གི་འབྲས་བུ་; also known as rain) lies between dark clouds and snow-capped mountains. At the summit of the secret practice mountain, practitioners fill the area, dragons assemble, and thunder roars.
In Buddhist iconography, wind can be depicted in two ways: through dragons, which symbolize wind and rain, or by showing banners and dresses fluttering in the breeze. The wind surrounding deities is called "invincible" (མི་ཕམ་; Guardian Wind). Additionally, wind, rain, thunder, and snow are not only unchanging natural landscapes across the four seasons but also witnesses to deities and events.
In the Tibetan textual world, wind, rain, thunder, and snow together create a full system of literary ornament and imagery, with the sky and clouds serving as the central subjects.
The wind carries with it the home of all elements (འབྱུང་བའི་ཁྱིམ་); the rain bestows wealth, and flowers descend from the sky to the earth; the snow abides, and its falling and accumulation bear witness to the meditation of deities (རྣལ་འབྱོར་བའི་དགའ་རྒྱན་); thunder calls to sentient beings, reminding them that what lies ahead are miracles and practitioners.
In depictions of the fierce protector Vajrapani, green ribbons signal the presence of the green wind (རླུང་ལྗང་), a symbol associated with Manjushri's manifestation, while the "red wind" (རླུང་དམར་) is the more common form. Facing northwest, the Wind God (Vayu) is honored with a greenish-blue body, mounted on a deer and holding a pennant along with a sack of winds. This deity embodies both destruction and protection, and his topknot moves with the breeze. Additionally, certain protectors, such as the wrathful Shurangama, carry green wind symbols in their hands to represent the element of wind and its energy.
Often depicted as the "holder of wind" (རླུང་འཛིན་), the mountain deity is Sublime Vajrabhairava (ཆེ་མཆོག་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་), who is revered both as a worshiped peak and as a deity of teachings. As a fierce mountain deity, this figure brings the "arrow wind" (འབིགས་བྱེད་རླུང་), an omen that warfare is approaching. The arrangement from top to bottom shows waves, flames, and whirlwinds, corresponding respectively to the elements of water, fire, and wind. At the same time, a gentle breeze carries the fragrant mist upward, accompanied by the aroma of offerings.
Among the common rain types in the Buddhist narrative tradition are gemstone rain (ནོར་ཆར་) and flower rain (མེ་ཏོག་ཆར་པ་). The Fifth Dalai Lama’s ritual text on the Yellow Jambhala (Yellow Wealth Deity) states that the former represents worldly wealth and the secret empowerment of tantra, while the latter represents the perfection of the practitioner’s spiritual practice. As for the wind (དྲི་བཞོན་; fragrant ride), it symbolizes one of the joys of heaven as found in scriptures.
Red Nose Elephant (ཚོགས་བདག་དམར་པོ་), a protector deity in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, has a monkey as its consort. In the original narrative, jewel rain is given as a reward to the virtuous king. A gemstone rain can also be described as a downpour from a pitcher filled with jewels. From a cultural analysis standpoint, gemstone rain appears in several Eastern religions—for example, the light and wealth rain in the Zoroastrian tradition—whereas flower rain is a ritual practice in the South Asian subcontinent.
On the snowy plateau, philosophers and singers often use snow as a symbol. Tibetan distinguishes between two terms for it: "kha wa," a general word, and "gangs," which usually denotes heavy or accumulated snow. Among nature's marvels is a child gathering blossoms from a flower rain and crafting a personal flower crown. The elephant, for its part, has a taste for both sour and sweet foods, and is frequently presented with radishes and candy as offerings.
Snow water and nectar—this pure white snow is considered an offering in worship (མཆོད་བྱ་). Spiritual practitioners dwell in snow-capped mountains, as seen in places like Mount Kailash. As mythical beings inhabiting snowy regions and peaks, snow lions represent power and dignity.
In Tibetan regions, the eye mask (མིག་ར་) is chiefly used to guard against snow blindness and glare. Within Buddhist practice, however, it may also serve as a fixed meditation aid for envisioning snow mountains and deities inside meditation caves. Ajita (ཡན་ལག་འབྱུང་), the first Arhat among the sixteen, resides at Mount Gandhamadana. Banchub Dorje (དཔལ་འབྱོར་དོན་གྲུབ་；1427-1489) is the first Jebtsundamba Khutughtu. All of these are rivers of nectar formed by the melting snow.
In Vajrayana Buddhism, snow is often described as the state of the two deities, namely འཁྱུད་པ་ཅན་ (Hugger). According to this article, translated from Sorang Wangqing's blog, the God Mountain is the residence of Vajrapani. Even in the hidden realm, storms occur.