The Journey
Amulet Box (Ga'u) with Guru Drag-po dMar-chen Tsha-Tsha
- 57
- Eastern Tibet
- 19th century
- Clay, silver, and copper alloy
- H. 3 1/8 x W. 1 3/4 in. (7.9 x 4.4 cm)
- Newark Museum, Gift of Dr. Wesley Halpert and Mrs. Carolyn M. Halpert, 1984, 84.408
This amulet box surrounds a clay votive tablet, or tsha-tsha. The relief-molded tsha-tsha shows the exorcist Guru Drag-po dMar-chen—one of the eight forms of Padmasambhava (also called Guru Rinpoche), the Indian master who spread Tantric Buddhism in Tibet in the eighth century. He holds a scorpion and a vajra ritual implement. Guru Drag-po dMar-chen is associated with a spirit-controlling, disease-preventing terma ("treasure" teaching) revealed to Padmasambhava by a scorpion.
PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Goodbody, Newark Museum