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Offerings to Wrathful Deities Thangka
OFFERINGS TO WRATHFUL DEITIES
Oil on Canvas
18 X 24
2011

In essence, offerings presented to wrathful deities fulfill the same function as those offered to peaceful ones. These sacrificial objects are offered on a purely symbolic levelThe offerings represent the sacrifices made to show allegiance and appease the deity. You don’t offer wrathful deities flowers and sunshine - you need to give them dead flesh and blood. Accompanying the offering is a sack of disease, a pair of divination dice and a death drum whose skin is pierced when the owner dies in order to release his spirit.

This is a wrathful offering of the five senses. The base of a wrathful sense offering is a skull cup mounted on a tripod of heads which contains the five sense organs. These are the heart or body representing touch and feeling; the eyes represent sight; the ears represent sound; the nose represents smell and the tongue to represent taste. They have been ripped from the body and are arranged as a ‘flower offering’. There is also the inclusion of the sixth sense of consciousness, represented by a silken arrow piercing the heart. It has a black silk canopy symbolizing the subjugating and destructive power of the deity. Fresh red blood drips from the skull cup and flames emanate from around the skull. This offering would be very auspicious if made to a wrathful deity.

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