The wall inscriptions that accompany many of the specific images are drawn from a 15th century work entitled Kunsang Gongdu, The Realization of Vast Beneficence, a compendium of Dzogchen teachings revealed by the Terton, or "treasure revealer", Pema Lingpa. The Lukhang murals illustrate key episodes in the life of this great master, a direct ancestor of the Sixth Dalai Lama who is credited with the Lukhang's original design at the turn of the 17th century.

The Potala Palace

In the late 17th century Tibet's Fifth Dalai Lama envisioned a small pagoda-roofed temple on a lake behind the Potala palace dedicated to the elemental spirits of earth and water which Tibetans call Lu. In Tibetan mythology these serpent-like beings are the guardians of both worldly and spiritual treasures. The top floor of the little known Lukhang temple enshrines a series of murals which the present Dalai Lama refers to as jewels of Tibetan civilization. An artistic representation of the Buddhist path to enlightenment, the Lukhang murals offered visual guidance to successive incarnations of Dalai Lamas who retired to the 20 X 20 foot chamber for periods of meditation and spiritual retreat. The powerful paintings that cover the wall were kept hidden behind silk curtains, invisible to all but the Dalai Lamas and their closest attendants.

Mahasiddha Sengepa

The present Dalai Lama, the fourteenth in a line of incarnations dating back to the 14th century, was forced to leave Tibet in 1959. Only years later did he receive the initiations and spiritual empowerments that would prepare him for the yogic practices richly illustrated on the Lukhang's mud-plastered walls.

The paintings depict esoteric practices of the earliest traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Tantric yogas such as mystic heat (tummo), consciousness transference (powa), lucid dreaming and corrollary visions are all given vibrant expression. In scenes not unlike those of Hieronymous Bosch, animated figures flow across the walls within a surreal blue-green landscape influenced by the painting styles of Qing dynasty China.

A female Naga

The eastern mural portrays the 84 Mahasiddhas, Tantric masters who flourished in India more than 1000 years ago. Kings, hunters, prostitutes, scholars as well as common laborers, they founded lineages which were originally propogated outside of monastic institutions, signifying that the spiritual path- and its fruits- are in no way contingent on orthodox lifestyles or religious conventions. The northern and western murals- each approximately five meters long- illustrate the practices and meditative disciplines of Dzogchen- the stage of "Great Perfection"- in which the adept awakens to the all-pervading Buddha Nature within his innermost being. As His Holiness theDalai Lama states; "In the path of Dzogchen nothing needs to be abandoned... the subtle mind of Clear Light can be recognized within all experience."

The Lukhang murals illustrate both the practice and existential view of Dzogchen as well as the resulting spiritual accomplishments. The wall inscriptions that accompany many of the specific images are drawn from a 15th century work entitled Kunsang Gongdu, The Realization of Vast Beneficence, a compendium of Dzogchen teachings revealed by the Terton, or "treasure revealer", Pema Lingpa. The Lukhang murals illustrate key episodes in the life of this great master, a direct ancestor of the Sixth Dalai Lama who is credited with the Lukhang's original design at the turn of the 17th century.

tummo: the yoga of inner heat.

The temple's origins, however, begin decades earlier when the Fifth Dalai Lama was visited during his meditations by a female Lu who complained of the destruction of her habitat in the swamps behind the northern walls of the Potala. During the Potala's construction, earth was excavated from the marshy ground inhabited by the tempermental Lu. A great pit slowly formed filling up with water from surrounding springs. The Fifth Dalai Lama vowed to build a temple to the displaced spirits at the excavation site, but he died before he could fulfill his goal. For fifteen years his acting regent, Desi Sangye Gyamtso, concealed his death to ensure that the Potala palace and its grounds would be completed, claiming that Tibet's supreme leader had embarked on a prolonged spiritual retreat for the benefit of all sentient beings.The Great Fifth's succeeding incarnation, Rinchen Tsangyang Gyatso, was enthroned in the Potala in 1697, at the age of fourteen. Less disposed than his predecessor to his religious and secular duties, the Sixth Dalai Lama avoided the dark halls of the Potala and spent much of his time in the surrounding parkland where he practiced archery and composed poems. The only Dalai Lama to renounce monkhood, many of his verses focus on romantic trysts and the integration of his amorous disposition with his responsibilities as a political and spiritual leader. The Lukhang's secluded setting on an island in the middle of a willow fringed lake provided him with an ideal sanctuary.

yogic techniques to develop the system of nadis.

Sir Charles Bell, the British political officer who lived in Lhasa in the 1920s, conversed extensively with the Thirteenth Dalai Lama concerning the unorthodox ways of his earlier incarnation. As Bell wrote, the young Dalai Lama "delighted in beautifying the great palace that had been so recently completed. He arranged for the construction and decoration of the 'Serpent House' [Lukhang], the building dedicated to the Lu under the northern escarpment of the Potala. He delighted also in the drinking of wine and in nightly assignations with girls from the town. These he would meet in the Serpent House, in the long upper room with its view across the dark water into the gnarled trees beyond." The Thirteenth Dalai Lama insisted that his sixth incarnation, however anomalous, was a true emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, and he recounted many instances of his spiritual powers. Similarly the present Dalai Lama is quick to point out that there is no reason to assume any contradiction between the Sixth's lack of celibacy and his role as Dalai Lama. Yet even in the age before puritan values could undermine those in public office, the Sixth Dalai Lama was considered a threat by Tibet's Mongol overlords. In 1705, he was escorted out of Lhasa by Mongol soldiers and, in all probability, killed near the banks of the remote Kokonor lake. Legend attests that as he was being led away by the Dzongar army, he thrust a poem prophesizing his next incarnation, into the hands of one of his lovers....

"White Crane! Lend me your wings!

I will not fly far

From Litang I shall return."

The Lukhang was renovated by later incarnations of Dalai Lamas who used the temple as a place of spiritual retreat. The paintings guided them in some of the most secret of Tibetan Buddhist practices and portrayed a path in which "wordly" and spiritual life could be inseparably joined. In Tibetan, the word Tantra (Gyud) refers to the stream of spiritual awareness that pervades all experience and perception. As the Dalai Lama wrote; "From the perspective of Tantra, once insight has been gained into the emptiness of inherent existence, all activities can become sacred....means for developing wisdom and compassion."

Prone to misunderstanding and biased interpretation, Tantra has always been a "secret doctrine". Nonetheless, His Holiness actively encouraged publishing photographs of the Lukhang murals stating that; "Errors in understanding are best served not by secrecy but by careful and thorough explanations". Thus the curtains that once concealed the Lukhang's illuminated walls have been swept aside and the essence of the Buddhist Tantras offered for contemplation. Many Tibetans believe that simply seeing these paintings can open the mind to universal spiritual truths. Unlike much Tibetan art the images on the Lukhang walls transcend their origins. Although painted centuries earlier, the recurring grids, circles, and other geometrical designs anticipate abstract art of the early 20th century, recalling Kandinsky's aspiration to express the "mystery of the spheres".

Rishis, the "seers" of ancient India

As the cultural historian Richard Lannoy wrote; "Tantric art is, perhaps, not so much an illustration as a TRANSLATION of a reality, a presence situated beyond the domain of what can be expressed in form". The Lukhang's powerful and evocative paintings introduce the viewer not only to one of Tibet's greatest periods of artistic innovation, but to the universal, if hidden, forces out of which all true art and spirituality arise.