MANJUSHRI
In Tibetan belief, it is the Bodhisattvas who are the active creators of the universe. A Bodhisattva (literally “ One whose essence is Supreme Knowledge”) is a perfect being, who heroically delays final liberation or absolute enlightenment in order to help others attain liberation. Manjushri is an ancient Buddha who vowed to emanate throughout the universe as the always youthful, princely Boddhisattva of Transcendent Wisdom. His special purpose is to lead the seekers of Buddha in the inquiry into the self, to discover the true nature of reality. He is depicted holding the text of the Transcendent Wisdom Sutra in his left hand and the double-edged sword of analytical discrimination, which cuts through all delusions and ignorance in his right.

BHAISHAJYAGURU - THE MEDICINE BUDDHA
Bhaishajyaguru means “Supreme Healer” or “the Lord Who Has a Healing Effect.” The Medicine Buddha is the primordial image of the divine healer. The sky-blue light radiating from his body disperses the darkness of afflictive emotions and all related physical disorders. The Medicine Buddha- the supreme benefactor known as the king of Aquamarine Light- expounds the quintessence of healing and longevity in a discourse entitled the “Tantra of the Secret Instructions on the Eight Branches of the essence of Immortality”, more commonly referred to as the Gyushi, or Four Medical Tantras.
Bhaishajyaguru is depicted here in his characteristic blue body colour. This colour is connected with his title, Lord of the Lapis Lazuli Coloured Light. Ground gem stones were also ingredients in traditional Tibetan Medicines. He rests his left hand on his lap, and his upwardly opened palm hold’s a monk’s bowl. In the bowl lies a fruit from the healing herb he is holding in his right hand.

GURU RINPOCHE- PADMASAMBHAVA
To the Tibetans, Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet, serves the mythic function of comprising in his person all the attributes of the Buddha, the Bodhisattvas and the eighty-four Great Adepts. He thus personifies the power of all the divine benevolence directed toward the Tibetan people. His image is everywhere and his name and his invocating mantra is often on the lips of Tibetans.
The legend of Padmasambhava or ‘lotus-born’ tells the story of the great saint as a young boy being sent to earth by way of a rainbow-trailing meteor and into the court of King of Uddiyana. He was found in a lotus lake. From childhood he disturbed people with his unconventional behaviour and eventually left society to attain enlightenment which he soon accomplished. He tamed many demons, converted many barbaric kingdoms to Buddhism and accomplished the power of longevity. He was summoned by King Trisong of Tibet, who invited the great tantric wizard to breathe new life into Buddhism which was generally over-powered by the pagan Bon religion. The fact that Padmasambhava was great theoretician and philosopher, and was extremely adept at exorcism and the magic arts were reason enough to invite him. He succeeded in expelling the demons of the Bon religion, curbing them and incorporating them into Vajrayana Buddhism as dharmpalas, guardians of Buddhism. Thus Padmasambhava put into practice one of the essential elements of tantrism, namely that negative powers and attributes should not be destroyed, but transformed and channeled into positive, salutary powers.
The honorific title by which he is generally known is Guru Rinpoche, “Precious Teacher.” He is considered by some to be equal to the Buddha who had many exceptional characteristics. The same was ascribed to Padmasambhava. Buddha’s conception and birth were immaculate events. The same occurred with Padmasambhava, as is revealed by his name which means He Who Was Born From a Lotus. The mysterious nature of his birth is revealed by the manner in which the saint is portrayed in this thangka. He appears like a vision, hidden in an aura of light. His third eye, the spiritual centre and his heart are fully opened, casting forth a golden radiance of rainbow colours.
In his left hand he holds the white skull bowl symbolising the realization of absolute voidness, or enlightenment, in which there is a vase of elixir of immortality, a symbol of transitory nature of matter. Held by his forearm and leaning on his left shoulder is the khatvanga, the adept’s staff, surmounted by the vajra cross (symbolising the union of wisdom and compassion), the vase of elixir, the three skulls, symbolising the conquest of the three poisons: greed, hatred and ignorance, and the trident, symbolising the mastery of the three central channels of yogic central nervous system. In his right hand he holds the vajra scepter, a power symbol representing the compassion having become great bliss consciousness. The sun and moon, symbols that indicate the guru’s cosmic omnipotence as well as his perpetual alertness day and night have been depicted on his hat.
The rainbow Padmasambhava portrayal should be interpreted as a mandala. The meditator concentrates at the depiction and ends up at the centre, where lies the guru’s right hand holding the the vajra. The symbolism is clear: the believer’s centripetal concentration ends up at the heart of the presentation, at the vajra which symbolises the method to attain liberation.
High up in the sky Manjushri, Avalokiteshwara, and Vajrapani represent wisdom, compassion and strength, characteristics that believers need and are to make their own. In the lower left sits Green tara, the protector.

Ratnasambhava
Ratnasambhava is associated with the southern direction and with the addictions of pride and avarice, which he helps to transform into the wisdom of equanimity. His colour is yellow and his Buddha clan is the jewel. He is seated in the diamond posture andmakes the wish-granting gesture with his right hand and the contemplation gesture with his left.

ADI BUDDHA SAMANTABHADRA - FATHER-MOTHER
The deep blue primal Buddha Samantabhadra (Universal Goodness) and his pure white Wisdom Consort Samantabhadri together represent the blissful essence of the Truth Body of all Buddhas, the most profound, ultimate reality of the universe, unwittingly experienced by all beings, but known consciously only by the enlightened. For the unenlightened to use icons such as this to find faith in the underlying and overwhelming goodness of reality itself is considered essential for their evolutionary and spiritual well-being. His deep blue colour is symbolic of the cosmic emptiness or shunyata. He sits in dhyanasana, the meditation position.

SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA
Buddhism was founded in the 6th century BCE by Siddhartha of the Gautama clan, crown prince of the Shakya kingdom. After becoming a Buddha, an Enlightened One, he was known as the Sage of Shakya, or Shakyamuni.
Prince Siddhartha was a philosopher, one who was disatisfied with the state of knowledge, art and social practice of his day. At 29, he was happily married and the father of a beautiful son; he had wealth and was about to assume the throne of his nation. Suddenly, shaken by encounters with sickness, death and old age, he left his astonished father and family. He promised them only that he was going to find out if there was something more to life than than following the conventional path from birth to death. Renouncinng his home, family, property, body and even identity, he went into the forest to meditate until he might find the truth or die in the attempt. At the age of 35, under the great bodhi tree, he attained perfect enlightenment, defined by him as complete freedom from all suffering, full experiential knowledge of the exact nature of reality, and comprehensive awareness of all its dimensions.
Shakyamuni is the Buddha of our historical period. To fully understand the omnipresence of his image in Tibatan culture, we must understand what “Buddha” means to Tibetans. A Buddha is a being- both human and divine, either male or female- who has “awakened” from the sleep of ignorance and has purified all evil, a being who has expanded limitlessly the power of his or her compassion and and accomplished all goodness. A Buddha is a form of life that has achieved the highest evolutionary perfection possible. He or she is perfect wisdom (the experience of the exact nature of reality) and perfect compassion (the embodiment of the will to others’ happiness.) Buddhahood transcends suffering and death and incorporates the perfected abilities to experience and communicate happiness to all living beings. A Buddha is not a creator god, so they are not blamed for the evil in the world. Evil is part of the existing order of things, produced by bad habits and persisting since beginningless time. Its root is ignorance or misknowledge of the nature of reality, which is the self’s misperception of its own status as absolute, its own position as central, its essence as ultimately separated from others. This misknowledge leads to greed and hate, as one wants to take things away from others and fears that others will take away from oneself. Greed and hatred cause negative evolutionary actions and inevitably causes suffering. The purpose of life is to get rid of all suffering and find real happiness. Buddhism holds that ignorance can be eliminated by the wisdom that totally understands reality, described as freedom from the rigid self. This wisdom experiences the self as interrelated with others. This understanding of the oneness of reality leads to generosity and love, as one feels enriched by others’ fortune and enjoys their happiness. The highest good, the greatest happiness, the supreme beauty and the most powerful dynamism of good action- these constitute Buddhahood, a state that all of us can, and eventually will attain.
Seated with legs crossed in the adamantine (diamond) posture and garbed in a simple robe, Shakyamuni touches the earth with his right hand. He is calling upon Mother Earth to bear witness to his enlightenment.

Thangkas of Windhorse
Windhorse specializes in authentic Thangkas, translated as "scroll cloth painting"‚ or "written history". The sacred Thangkas paintings originated in India more than two thousand years ago when reverent visions of saints and sages made the teachings of Buddha available to the mass population.
They are hung in monasteries, family alters and carried by lamas in ceremonial processions. In a land that is influenced by the mystical and esoteric forces, Thangkas are considered treasures of great value.
Since the tragic invasion and mass destruction of Tibetan art and culture by the Chinese in 1959, there has recently been a strong movement to retain the wisdom inherent in Tibetan art and culture. The Thangkas both historically and now, have important practical and spiritual purposes.

Initially they were presented as a visual way of transmitting the teachings of Buddha directly to the people. Monks would travel in a nomadic lifestyle from village to village between monasteries to spread the vast teachings of Buddha. Important Buddhist events and stories as well as depictions of Buddhas,Boddhisattvas, Goddesses and Wrathful protectors were the main focus. Besides teaching these events, it was important to portray the purity and beauty of enlightened existence that is, from the Buddhist perspective, the true nature of reality in all it's beauty and splendour. As well as being examples of masterful artistry and images of absolute beauty, the thangka is a physical form of the spiritual and are used as an instrument for realizing oneself through meditation. They reflect the divine qualities within each of us helping us to embrace our weaknesses thereby giving us the courage to be more compassionate to ourselves and therefore the rest of humanity. Through the practice of meditation, thangkas act as a tool to realize one's own enlightenment. The Thangkas of Windhorse Gallery are in keeping with the holistic and ancient methods with each one taking months, often years to complete.
They are perfectly balanced, all with correct iconographical content and colors created using natural mineral and gem paints. The grinding of these ingredients combined with the customary yak hide glue that works as a binder takes hours to create and pure gold and silver are used to create a dramatic and luminous effect. Each Thankga is inscribed with a sacred prayer on the back Om Ha Hum‚ that represents absolute enlightenment of the body, speech and mind. These are considered the 3 vital doorways that help us to communicate with ourselves, others and nature. This prayer serves as a reminder for us to stay aware and integral to these doorways. In addition, they illustrate the enlightenment of the depicted deity; all that is spoken, all that is thought and all which
moves through them is that of absolute purity. The prayer is inscribed by a lama who blesses the thangka and invites the depicted deity to inhabit the painting thereby becoming a living extension of the deity itself.
The paintings, through their beauty, touch the heart of the soul and reflects the Buddha that is within us all.