Padmasambhava was a great yogi, originally from Oddiyana, a territory in the Northwestern region of ancient India. He was invited to Tibet by the famous Buddhist acharya, Shantarakshita, and the Tibetan King Trisong Detsen (8th Century A.D.), in collaboration with whom Padmasambhava founded the famous Samye monastery in Tibet. He is said to have tamed many local deities and initiated Tantric Buddhist teachings in Tibet. He is regarded as a major spiritual ancestor of all Tibetan Buddhists. Tibetans usually call him Guru Rinpoche, or Precious Teacher, and consider him as a second Buddha. He is highly revered in Tibet by all Buddhist sects, but his teachings and philosophy are followed especially by the Nyingmapa.

Padmasambhava has eight manifestations, one for each of eight important actions he performed during his lifetime. Among them one is Suryaprabha (Rays of the sun) or Guru Nyi-ma-od-zer (the enlightening sun of darkness). It is said that during Padmasambhava's long life of many centuries, he had a phase of living in charnel grounds where he performed the ascetic and ecstatic yoga of a great yogi. He taught the Dharma to dakinis for five years and thence came to be known as Nyi-ma-od-zer or Rays of the sun, one of his eight manifestations.

He is shown here seated at ease with legs crossed in three-quarter profile on an animals skin on a lotus throne. At the back of Suryaprabha is the mount Potala stupa. There is large yogi's container on the right of Suryaprabha. He wears the jeweled skull-crown earrings, necklace, armlets, bracelets, anklets, tiger-skin dhoti, and cemetery ash. These symbolize his attainment of the six transcendent virtues as well as his mastery of the subtle subjectivity of universal bliss. He holds his khatvanga, yogi's staff, its trident tip symbolizing his control of the three channels of the yogi subtle nervous system; its skull, freshly severed head, and shrunken head symbolizing his transmutation of death, the between state, and life into the three Buddha-bodies of truth, beatitude, and emanation; its small vase symbolizing the transmutation of the energy of passion into wisdom; and its vajra cross below the vase symbolizing the omnipresence of his voidness-realizing, compassionate orgasmic bliss. His left hand is held down in the threat gesture.

Suryaprabha's charnel ground is depicted below his seat, which is represented by dismembered corpses, being devoured by wild animals etc. and an impaled person. At the apex a Nyingma lama is seated. There are two large trees on the left. A Chinese style flying deity is depicted in clouds in the upper right corner. On the right, near the throne of Suryaprabha, perhaps one of his consorts is standing and behind her a siddha is seated on a throne. A siddha and a dakini are depicted in the bottom left corner, while a Nyingma lama is in the right with scripture.

The background of the painting is brilliantly painted with mountainous landscape, high peaks, covered with snow, rocks, lakes, natural vegetation and clouds.

References:

L.A. Waddell, Buddhism & Lamaism of Tibet, New Delhi, 1979 (reprint)

M.M. Rhie & R.A.F. Thurman, World of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, New York, 1999

This description by Dr. Shailendra Kumar Verma, Ph.D. His doctorate thesis being on the "Emergence and Evolution of the Buddha Image (From its inception to 8th century A.D)."

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