Eight Flashes of the Tibetan Dragon: Key Terms in Dragon Art
In today's article, we turn our attention to art history, having already explored the origins and traditional symbolism of Tibetan dragons in "A Statement on Tibetan Dragons." I will present eight key terms along with related images concerning Tibetan dragons. The work in question is "The Four Great Achievers in Bamboo Baga," rendered in the Radu region's traditional mixed painting style during the mid-late 19th century. Its notable detail shows an auspicious dragon holding a treasure vase and offering nectar to the achievers.
Readers can connect the past and present of Tibetan dragons with the help of these visual artworks.
Behind the dragon-like figure lies the local culture's deep attachment to the "dragon theme": these images function as omens, inspiration, and decoration, while also constituting the very core of the idea. In the work titled "Legacy of Adi Gorge: Five Deities of White Zhan Bara/White Wealth God," dated to the late 18th century and associated with the Hahn Cultural Foundation, the top center signifies the source of the teachings, Avalokiteshvara; Adi Gorge and Jia Yi Shi are positioned on the left and right, and the Wealth God is encircled by four attendant goddesses. A separate piece, "White Zanbala/White Wealth God Statue," comes from mid-18th-century Mongolia and belongs to a private collection. Meanwhile, on the banks of the Ganges River, the great master Atisha (982-1055) once witnessed a man on the verge of starvation, with no food beside him.
The man shook his head and declined, saying, "I do not eat human flesh, especially not yours; I only ask you to give me a method to increase my fortune and luck." Atisha had been ready to follow the Buddha's example and offer his own flesh. This reply and the man's demeanor moved Atisha so deeply that tears rose in his eyes. Moreover, Avalokiteshvara, the deity Atisha worshipped, also wept: the tears from his left eye transformed into the goddess Tara, and those from his right eye became White Jambhala together with his four attendant goddesses.
The jade dragon ridden by White Mahakala carries three meanings. First, it symbolizes the flourishing of the White Mahakala lineage in Tibet. The riding dragon deity became popular in the Tibetan region after the great master Atisha passed this teaching on to his disciple, the translator Jampa Sherap Senge. Atisha himself had received the "White Jambhala practice lineage" directly from Avalokiteshvara, without relying on any existing teachings.
White Mahakala, who rides the dragon, is frequently linked to weather changes, and the ritual texts emphasize his special protective power for abundant harvests and food. Further, the jade dragon, which represents wealth and fortune, is in fact the tears of the bodhisattva (this lineage requires water offerings).
In this early 20th-century brocade-embroidered thangka from Bhutan, held in a private collection, the central top figure is Milarepa, a key figure within the Kagyu tradition. The piece is titled "Five Sisters of Longevity and Good Fortune." Within the partial view shown, the woman riding the Jade Dragon is Sheren Shan.
The artwork "Biography of Milarepa: Milarepa and the Five Sisters of Long Life," dating to the 18th century and held in the Rubin Museum collection, contains a narrative sequence that the author has indicated with red numerals (1-2-3). Throughout Tibet, the stories and devotional practices associated with the "Five Sisters of Longevity and Auspiciousness" (ཚེ་རིང་མཆེད་ལྔ) have remained widely cherished, extending from their origins within the indigenous religious framework of the region—where they appear as "Manmo" (སྨན་མོ་/སྨན་འཁོར།, female-like spirits said to wander near mountain and lakeside villages)—to their eventual role as protective deities enshrined within Buddhist temples.
The master Padmasambhava subdued these local guardian deities, who then pledged to safeguard the Buddha's teachings. In the later propagation of Buddhism, the Five Sisters met Milarepa (1040-1123) in a notable event: the goddesses, initially arriving to challenge him, ended up as his devoted disciples. Each goddess rides her own mount; the Goddess of Compassionate Giving is mounted on a divine dragon.
The dragon mount of the Goddess of Compassionate Giving carries special significance as a guardian of pastures and livestock. Its blessing is essential for ensuring that the pastures enjoy abundant water and grass, a promise signified by the snakes representing "Lu" (see previous post) and the long-lived thatch grass growing in those lands. This is echoed in the invocation, "Protect all cattle and sheep, and ride on the dragon through the oceans of oil and milk.
In certain pastures, the herding dogs—typically Tibetan mastiffs—are called the "servants of the dragon", while ritual texts stress that the dragon safeguards the pastures against earthquakes, frost, hail, and snow disasters.
The group known as the Twelve Danma Goddesses (བརྟན་མ་བཅུ་གཉིས།, or Twelve Earth Mothers) consists of four Dömo (བདུད་མོ།, or witches), four Yakṣiṇīs, and four Māmo. A painting of these figures, dated to the first half of the 19th century, is housed at the Gime National Museum of Asian Art, with some scholars linking it to the Kangra painter "Kasur Painter." The "Twelve Goddesses Mural: Namtso Vajrayana Mother" was photographed by the author at Gaden Monastery in Mocogar County, a site founded during Songtsen Gampo's reign.
According to traditional scriptures, Padmasambhava tamed these female spiritual beings from Tibetan indigenous beliefs, who stabilize the four directions and bring harmony to all beings. Three main lineages concern them: the general Dharma protector rituals, found mostly in the Gelug and Kagyu traditions; the attendants of White Tara; and the revealed treasure tradition of the Nyingma school, especially that of Mindrolling Monastery.
Early ritual texts do not depict any goddess riding a dragon; in some later sources (for instance, certain lineage transmissions of the Zhugaba sect), the dragon-riding goddess is not Jangma Yungmo (རྡོ་རྗེ་ཀུན་གྲགས་མ།), also known as the Radiant Queen. She dwells at Namtso Lake, holding a clear mirror and a water monster banner, with a turquoise jade dragon beneath her seat.
Floating on the surface of Namtso Lake is the dragon that Jangma Yungmo rides. It commands all aquatic beings with the water monster banner and uses the clear mirror for divination. The dragon embodies the creatures of the sacred lake, whereas the goddess is its very soul; their coming together brings good fortune.
Water-monster and dragon imagery appears in "The Inheritance and Various Attendants: The Divine Mother of Victorious Enemies from the Auspicious Realm," which dates to the early 15th century and is held in a private collection. A detail from this work shows two Danma goddesses, with the mother of King Kong Mingyang on the right, while another section features three long-lived goddesses, including the goddess of kindness on the right. Separately, "The Traditional Twin-Armed Rahu-Rakshasa Guardians from the Hidden Sanctuary," created in the mid-19th century and housed in the Rubin Museum of Art, includes a depiction of water monster-faced guardians as attendants. The Longevity Sisters and the Twelve Danma Goddesses alike came to be regarded as attendants of the Goddess of Good Fortune following the impact of Buddhist influence.
This fifteenth-century painting exposes a confusion in Tibet's early painting tradition among several related motifs: Tibetan dragons, South Asian water monsters (ཆུ་སྲིན), and the face of glory Zhibaza (ཙི་པ་ཊ or ཙི་པ་ཏ). At the same time, it accurately shows the two previously mentioned dragon-riding goddesses—Vajra Utmost Praise Mother and Sheren Good Deeds Female—while seventeen goddesses encircle the central deity, the Goddess of Good Fortune.
Paintings, early temple murals, and religious decorations depict the high arched and curved nose and the granular-textured body, traits that do not belong to dragons. Such an expression was rampant in the works of the creators of Oel Temple, Kunga Sangpo (1382-1456), and Petön Panchen (1376-1451). As for the water monsters and Zhibaza, the author has already done extensive research in previous articles; readers may revisit those past pieces at the end of this article.
Even today, people still confuse a deer with a horse. Yet the arrival of the dragon image from East Asia seemed to offer a clear way to tell these beings apart.
The private collection houses "Sakya Sect Patriarch: Sakya Gonggar Ningbo", dating to the late 12th century, and its detail includes a cushion bearing a pattern of double dragons playing with pearls. In the Bob van Grevenbroek Archives, the "Dragon and Garuda Patterned Tibetan Rug" is preserved, with an unknown date estimated to the first half of the 18th century. Also found in that archive is the item "Decoration and Dragon", which comprises the "Dragon Pattern Tibetan Rug with Mountain and River Scenery", an undated work thought to originate around the 19th century.
In Tibetan decorative arts—whether on rugs, chests, temple utensils, or costumes—dragons frequently carry an East Asian flavor, unlike those found in local beliefs and religious rituals. There, they are regarded as emblems of supreme authority and hidden spaces. This is evident in "The Great Teacher Bā Situ in Dadu Spreading the Dharma," a mid-17th century work in the Rubin Museum collection, which features a dragon motif on the dharma seat as a notable detail.
According to Jampel Gyatso, the 8th Dalai Lama (1760-1810), who acted as regent, animal-motif Tibetan rugs fall into five types: the double deer rug, which stands for the teachings; the tiger rug, for the diamond mind and masculinity; the snow lion rug, for practitioners; the frog rug, for auspiciousness; and the dragon rug, for special identities.
In the course of political and cultural interactions between Tibet and the Central Plains dynasties, the distinctive significance of East Asian dragons came to be absorbed into local dragon traditions, in both sacred and secular settings. As a symbol, the dragon conveys prosperity and sends its message to every direction. Originally published in Chinese on Sorang Wangqing's blog, this piece has been translated into English.