This manuscript cover depicts Vajrabhairava (大威德金剛), the deity of Tibetan Buddhism. The wrathful Vajrabhairava is the most popular tantric manifestation of Manjushri (文殊菩薩), the Great Bodhisattva of Wisdom, who takes this guise as a potent transformative teaching. He has a buffalo head with eight those of Manjusri, and tramples on humans or Hindu gods, conveying his supremacy over the physical realms of existence. In his primary hands he holds a curved knife and skull cup, while his outstretched hands radiate around him brandish an array of ritual weapons and attributes that symbolize his skillful means. In this form, he is sometimes called Yamantaka, or the destroyer of death, a deity that ends the cycle of rebirth and provides a path to nirvana. His central face that of a ferocious bull signifies his subjugation of Yama, the Lord of Death, and his triumph over the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The worship of Vajrabhairava enjoyed great popularity throughout Tibet, Mongolia, and China during the Yuan and Qing dynasty. This was in large part due to Vajrabhairava being a primary yidam (transformative deity) of the Gelugpa monastic order who ascended power in Tibet. The Mongol rulers were adherents of Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrabhairava became a prominent Buddhist icon especially under the Qing emperors, who maintained direct links with the dignitaries of the Gelugpa sect, including the Dalai and Panchen Lamas.

On the left and right sides of Vajrabhairava, four bull-headed deities identified as Yama Dharmaraja (閻魔), known as the protector of the Vajrabhairava cycle of tantra, are standing atop a buffalo. In Tibetan Buddhism, he is both regarded with horror as the prime mover of the cycle of death and rebirth and revered as a guardian of spiritual practice. Under the lotus pedestal of Yama Dharmaraja, auspicious symbolic attributes appear. Ashtamangala, the eight auspicious signs of Tibetan buddhism, consist of the endless knot, lotus flower, jewelled parasol, white conch shell, wheel of the law (dharmachakra), treasure vase, victory banner (dhvaja) and pair of golden fish. These were also depicted in the frame surrounding the interior. In addition, Kirtimukha appears at the top of the frame. The Kirtimukha, meaning the face of glory, fame or majesty, is the name of a swallowing fierce monster face with huge fangs, gaping mouth and serpent-devouring. At the bottom of the frame, a pair of animals with fangs were decorated.

The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a divine presence in which the Buddha lives and reveals himself for Tibetan Buddhists. Therefore, the books and manuscripts containing sacred texts and illustrates from the scriptures were venerated and handled with the utmost respect. Buddhist monks and scholars, predominantly from India, disseminated their practices in Tibet from the 6th to the 9th centuries CE, largely due to the beautifully illustrated Buddhist texts that they brought to the country. As early as the seventh century, these Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures had begun to be translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan under the reign of the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo (618-649) who established the Tibetan Empire. In the 8th century, King Trisong Detsen (755–797) established it as the official religion of the state, and the Indian Sanskrit canon had been completely written in the Tibetan language by the 12th century.

Primarily inspired by eastern Indian medieval book covers which consisted of two wooden covers on either side of a series of palm leaf or birch bark pages, Tibetan artists took license in their continuation of the tradition. Tibetan manuscript covers were often larger in format than their Indian counterparts, largely due to the fact that their folios tended to be of strong paper which allowed for greater size. It is only natural, given that the manuscript covers were meant to house sacred texts, that Tibetan artists were inspired to create truly beautiful and unique works such as the present example. In turn, Tibetan innovations such as the covers’ large size and amount of embellishment later influenced the covers of Mongolian and Chinese books.

(Reference: Siklos, Bulcsu. The Vajrabhairava Tantras: Tibetan and Mongolian Versions. The Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1996; Kapstein, Matthew. Buddhism Between Tibet and China. Wisdom Publications, 2009.)