Usnisavijaya (Sanskrit), or Tsuktor Namgyelma (Tibetan) is a bodhisattva divinity of longevity which resides at Buddha’s ushnisha. Translated from Sanskrit, her name means “victory”.
She is a yidam, or a main divinity of a nine-part mandala and is included in “life prolongation sadhana” along with Buddha Amitayus and White Tara divinity, which symbolizes a “vase with nectar” in her eighth left hand.
Usnisavijaya’s meditative practices are especially effective for overcoming the blocks preventing longevity, for the effective purification of body, language and mind, for helping all living creatures suffering from hard diseases. Usnisavijaya protects from eight kinds of fear and reincarnation in the lower worlds. It is believed that the good from repeating its mantra is as big that the protection of the divinity will be strong in the actual and all next lives as well.
The goddess is usually depicted as a young gracious woman perched at the lotus throne. She has three faces and eight hands. The central face is peaceful, the right yellow face is disturbed, and the left dark blue face is outraged. Each face has three eyes. The head of a beautiful bodhisattva is decorated with five-petaled crown with Buddha Vairocana’s image (this name means “shiny”, “radiant” in Sanskrit).
The divinity holds a cross-like double vishvavajra in her right hand at the chest, and in her upper right hand there is a small image of the Buddha of the West Amitabha; her central right hand holds an arrow, her lower right hand is shown with her palm up, which represents a gesture (mudra) of the “good giver”.
She holds a lasso in her left hand at the chest, the upper left hand is kept in a “protection giving” mudra, the central left hand holds a bow with an arrow and a lower right hand holds a jar with the immortality nectar (amrit kalash).
The wood carving was created by an outstanding artist, lama-sculptor Sanji-Tsybik Tsybikov in the late 19th – early 20th century in the best traditions of the Buryat Buddhist art. The object is made of wood in the mixed technique and painted with the mineral colors.
Sanji-Tsybik Tsybikov (1877-1934) is an outstanding lama-sculptor, the founder of the first professional school of the Buryat wood carving.
