Masterpiece 013 · Wheel of Life

A woven translation of a Himalayan Wheel of Life painting.

At the still centre three creatures chase one another round, the bird, the snake, the pig: wanting, aversion, not seeing. Around them, half the people climb toward the light and half go down into the dark.

Then the wide wheel: gods and their rivals in the clouds, people at work among their houses, animals in the green land, hungry ghosts by the water, and the fires and cold below. In every one of these worlds a Buddha is standing.

At the rim, twelve small scenes, one leading to the next, from a blind walker to an old life ending. The wheel keeps turning. Sitting before it, we can watch it turn.

At the hub, a rooster, a snake and a pig, each holding the next. In the traditional reading they are the three poisons: desire, aversion and ignorance. They are what keeps the wheel turning.

On the light half, figures rise toward better births. On the dark half, figures fall toward harder ones. It is a picture of action and its results.

This painting has five wedges, separated by red spokes. Gods and demigods: palaces, clouds, a great tree, and a battle between the two. Humans: houses, work and gatherings, with a seated Buddha. Animals: mountains, forest and water. Hungry ghosts: pale beings near water and fire, visited by a Buddha. Below: fire, cauldrons and ice, a dark judge figure at the centre, and a blue Buddha among the beings. In the tradition, a Buddha appears in each realm.

Twelve scenes in arched frames follow around the rim: not knowing, forming, awareness, name and form, the six senses, contact, feeling, thirst, holding, becoming, birth, and ageing and passing.

The border is a dense red brocade of flowers and scrolls, a plain red silk band, and a gold fringe. A small gold serial, KH · 013, sits on the red silk band.

The edge is the body: the brocade, the red silk and the gold fringe close the circle. The field is the mind: the five worlds and the twelve scenes. The centre is the soul: the hub, where the three poisons chase each other, which is what the painting asks us to see clearly.

Beauty and presence.