This is
a fortune-telling thanka and as a 'sort of game, 'the game of Rebirth', it is
played with dice. Unlike other thankas this thanka is interesting for its
subject-matter, which neither depicts a deity nor a monk but a sort of
religious game a popular game of the Tibetan people. Though the subject is
different the ultimate goal of the game as depicted in this painting, like
other thankas is the same, i.e. nirvana or final liberation. Salam Nam Shag
actually describes the path (marga) and the successive stages (bhumi) of
spiritual progress for attaining nirvana. The game was invented by skyapandita,
the great Sanskrit scholar and guru of the Sakya sect in the early 13th century
A.D. The thanka shows seven horizontal and seven vertical rows representing
seven squares in each row. These squares which symbolically represent the
'board' of the game and cosmic geography illustrate the paths to enlightenment
and final liberation.
At the top
are shown the figures of Amitayus in Sukhavati heaven, Vajradhara in yab-yum in
vairahumkaramudra and Vajrayogini in this thanka, devaloka, daityaloka,
manusyaloka, nagaloka, paSuloka and naraka have been illustrated with
representations of deities, arhats. Sravakas, asuras, nagas, beasts and the
sufferings in hell. The game is started from the human realm and with the cast
of a dice one proceeds upward or down-ward either to devaloka or to the lower
states of rebirth or naraka. The winner in the game of rebirth reaches the
realm of Buddhahood and nirvana.
Writer
– Sipra Chakraverti
Dear Professor Chakravarti, I would like to know more about the Tibetan Game of Rebirth