Tangka

This scroll painting or tangka depicts Nilambharadhara Vajrapani (phonetic Tibetan: Chag dor gos gon chan; transliterated Tibetan: Phyag rdor gos sngon chan), a principal wrathful protector or Dharmapala of Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrapani raises a vajra in his right hand to threaten the enemies of religion, or to subdue or remove inner obstacles for the Buddhist practitioner. He is surrounded by other manifestations of himself and by Buddhist scholar saints. The black background is typically used when depicting fierce deities such as this. Their images are kept in dark chapels within monasteries called Gonkhang (Tibetan: mGon kang).