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Plate 17.9 Four-Armed Mahākāla (primary protector of Kagyü Plate 17.10 Pañjaranātha Mahākāla (primary protector of the Sakya
order). South wall, east door wall, Qutan Hall, Qutan Monastery Order). South wall, west door wall, Qutan Hall, Qutan Monastery
temple. A local Tibetan history, the History of the Dharma in were intended as auspices for the construction of the
Amdo (mDo smad chos ’byung; 1865), gives an account of the Vajradhara Chapel (Longguodian 隆國殿). 40
founding and initial painting and sculpture programme of
Qutan Monastery, which is recorded as being largely Tibetan: Qutan Hall (Tib. dBus su lha khang)
In the four directions were erected earth-subduing stūpas, and Murals inside Qutandian 瞿曇殿 (Gautama Hall) (1392) seem
the principal images of the central chapel (Qutandian 瞿曇殿) to be Ming works, and iconographic evidence within wall
were the Buddhas of the Three Times and their close disciples paintings themselves supports this assessment: those inside
(the Eight Great Bodhisattvas). In the left flanking Hall of the the hall contain Kagyü and Sakya imagery, such as the
Protectors were statues of Four-Armed Mahākāla and Four-Armed Mahākāla (Pl. 17.9) – primary protector of the
Pañjaranātha Mahākāla together with attendants. In the wall Kagyü order – and Pañjaranātha Mahākāla (Pl. 17.10)
paintings were Six-Armed Mahākāla with his retinue of – primary protector of the Sakya order. One also finds
seventy-five forms of Mahākāla, and Four-Armed Mahākāla
with attendants residing here together with the blessed [image paintings of hierarchs of Kagyü and Sakya orders, such as
of] Dharmarāja ... Because it had an [image of] Achima (A Sakya Paṇḍita. This Kagyü/Sakya presence is significant for
phyi ma), it is known as the ‘Achi Protector Chapel’. dating the Qutan Hall’s wall paintings, as Qutan Monastery
was originally a Kagyü temple, but with close ties to the
In the right-flanking chapel was the Great Sakya Stūpa. In the Sakya, until it changed sectarian affiliation and came under
paintings on its sides were Vajradhara inside each of four gates
which themselves resembled dānyukaṭaka stūpas. And in the Geluk order’s control in the mid-15th century. If Qutan
sequence were countless assemblies of deities of the Anuttara Hall had been repainted later under Geluk stewardship one
Tantra class and the three other tantra classes (Kriyā, Caryā would expect Geluk content. However, none is present inside
and Yoga), such as Kālacakra, Saṃvara, Hevajra and a form of the hall; Geluk imagery is only evident outside in the later
Bhairava according to the Ko (sKo) tradition; many tutelary 18th-century vestibule (repaired in 1782), such as the founder
deities (yi dam) of the Nyingma class such as Vajrakīla, the Four of that monastic order, Tsongkhapa.
Guardian Kings, various Dharma-protectors, Guardians of the However Tibetan in style and iconography the wall
Ten Directions, together with Great Nāga on the tips of light paintings may appear at first glance, Chinese painters’ hands
rays; and the pillars on the [different] levels which appeared to are revealed in numerous small details, such as the skull
be supported by the many hands of offering deities, etc. These
things are renowned as apparitions of miraculous form. Qutan crown of Pañjaranātha (Pl. 17.10) – which is painted in the
Monastery’s abbot Kal Zangpa (sKal bzang pa) said that these same manner as a Mingwang 明王 (Pl. 17.11) found in

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