![Shri Devi/ Chwaskamani [Medium]](Covers/21619.jpg)
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| Author(s) : Beer, Robert |
| Publishers Price : £120.00 |
| Wisdom Price : £120.00
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| Availability :
Usually available in 7 day(s)
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| Size : 457 x 368mm | | Publisher : Robert Beer Website |
Category : Newar Buddhist Art
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Synopsis:
In the Kathmandu Valley the goddess Chhwaskamini is the Newar equivalent of the Indo-Tibetan goddess Shri Devi or Paldan Lhamo. Her form was first adopted by Newar merchants in Lhasa, who identified Shri Devi with Kali and their local spirit-goddess Chhwasa Ajima. The term Chhwasa refers to a place where items such as a dead person’s clothes or a newborn child’s afterbirth may be left, and the term Ajima, means grandmother. During every Newar festival a food offering is traditionally left for Chhwasha Ajima at a local crossroad, the belief being that a failure to propitiate this grandmother-spirit properly may result in people becoming ill or dying. Until recently most infant deaths in the Valley were attributed to the retribution of Chhwasa Ajima, who is also known as Chhwaskamini. She is extremely wrathful and blue-black in colour, with an emaciated body, four arms, three eyes, a malignant smile, a drawn face, sagging breasts, and skeletal arms and legs. In a maelstrom of smoke, wind and fire she rides sidesaddle on her mule across a swirling ocean of blood. Her mule has an eye on its rump, its reins are poisonous snakes, and the flayed skin of her cannibal son serves as her saddle blanket. She wears gold and bone ornaments, a five-skull crown, a tiger-skin loincloth, a garland of severed heads, and a crescent moon and peacock-feather parasol float above her crown. With her two right hands she holds an iron sword, and an upturned skull full of ‘charm blood’; and with her two left hands she holds a trident, and a shakti-dagger or a peacock-feathered dart. The outer border or torana of this painting is decorated with a pair or roaring lions and ascending dragons, the winged emblem of a garuda is at the bottom, and the crowning face of kirtimukha appears at the top. |
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