Chandi (Mother Goddess) Thangka Painting 60*46

Chundi is a relatively unknown minor female deity in Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhist art. There are a number of common variant spellings of her name: cunda, chunda, cundi, and chundi. She is a dharani goddess meaning that she is the personification of a magic spell or incantation called a dharani in the Sanskrit language. She appears to be principally associated with the Abhayakara Group of catalogued deities. She has three described forms: four armed, eighteen armed and twenty-six armed. She is peaceful in appearance and generally white in colour. Belonging to the Kriya classification of tantra, the principal text is The incantaion of the Goddess Chandi. The mantra of Chunda was also made famous in the Karandavyuha Sutra.

The Chinese Buddhist tradition associates Chunda with Avalokiteshvara and even refers to her as a female emanation of Lokeshvara. This of course is most likely a result of the first reference to the Chunda dharani/mantra found in the Karandavyuha Sutra which likely predates The Incatation of the Doddess Chandi. Early Tibetan texts do not relate or conflate the entities of Chunda and Lokeshvara. The sutra clearly states that the dharani is the utterance of 70 million buddhas without any mention of an associated female deity.

Handcrafted by master local artists in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.

Size Full canvas measures approximately 84*56 centimeters.  Inside painted area measures about 60*46 centimeters.