This Nepali painting, compact in design and strong in color contrasts, contains a mandala--a large circle enclosing a square--which is a symbolic diagram of a divine "temple." Such images are used by Buddhist worshipers to help them reach a state of focused concentration through meditation and prepare them for their ultimate encounter with the Absolute, symbolized by the central image of the Buddha. The mandala itself is a sacred circular field bordered on its exterior by a rim of flames, which is separated by a narrow girdle of vajras, or "thunderbolts," from an inner rim of lotus petals. These three borders signify the fire of consciousness, which consumes ignorance; supreme consciousness, which is indestructible like the thunderbolt; and spiritual rebirth, which is symbolized by the lotus. Four elaborate gate structures lead into the fortified temple square, which is shown as if in bird's eye view. Lacelike scrollwork impregnates the ground, and the five images of Buddhas, with their consorts in the smaller mandalas and the main deity in the center, seem to float eerily above it. Stella Kramrisch, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 55.