# @rubinmuseum on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DRpQbO2EyIO
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/37455450-rubinmuseum-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/cee9e6d5d0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-11-29T15:00:47.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art (@rubinmuseum) — https://gondola.cc/rubinmuseum

## Caption

The vajra is a ritual scepter used in tantric practices and an attribute of tantric masters and deities. It generally symbolizes method, the male aspect of enlightenment, and is depicted throughout Himalayan art.

Can you see a vajra in the hand of the Red Yogini, Vajrayogini in the featured sculpture? This deity embodies female power and the wisdom of understanding the ultimate reality as explained in Buddhist tantric teachings. Both a staff (katvanga) topped by three heads, and a scepter (vajra) rests on her left shoulder, symbolizing her absent consort Chakrasamvara.

This embroidered depiction of Vajravarahi, or the sow-faced goddess (slide 2), also features a scepter (vajra) on her left shoulder. In Buddhist tantric practices, Vajravarahi is the focus of meditations that help to uproot ego. You'll see that in her right hand she holds aloft a curved knife—a recurring iconography we explored in an earlier post in this series—for severing mental afflictions.

When the vajra is an element of the tantric staff, an attribute of tantric deities, it represents the union of the two aspects of enlightenment. When held by a male deity, it symbolizes his female consort as wisdom. When held by a female deity, it represents her male consort as method.

You've likely observed that the vajra itself can also take different forms, and can be an element of a staff or stand alone, like the example on the final slide: a 20th-century double vajra. 

The vajra and our next iconography of study, the bell, are highly symbolic objects, with the vajra scepter representing method (compassionate action) and the bell representing wisdom (understanding of reality). When used together, they represent the unity of these two key aspects of the enlightened mind.
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1. The Red Yogini, Vajrayogini; 19th century; Tibet; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2002.24.11
2. Vajravarahi; 19th century; Tibet; embroidery on silk; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2003.13.2
3. Double Vajra; 20th century; Tibet; metalwork; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; gift from the Collection of Navin Kumar, New York; C2005.44

#RubinMuseum #HimalayanArt

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rubinmuseum, himalayanart

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