TIBET, 18TH CENTURY

This painting of Dorje Shugden from the Sakya lineage depicts the protector deity alongside the lineage master and his retinue. A nineteenth-century text by Sakya Kangso describes Dorje Shugden as “in the middle of a whirling palace of black wind… the Great King with a body red-black in color, one face two hands, the right holds a club aloft to the sky and the left a skull cup filled with blood and a human heart. On the head, a lacquer hat is placed, riding a black horse surrounded by inconceivable emanations to the Dharmapala King Shugden Tsel, together with attendants…”
Dorje Shugden was also a popular protector deity in the Gelug tradition. The popularity of Dorje Shugden increased in the early twentieth century and reached its peak in the middle of the century. Since the 1970s, however, the Dalai Lama has discouraged worshiping Dorje Shugden, viewing him as a harmful ghost spirit. While many have followed the word of the Dalai Lama, there still exists a group of Gelugpa Buddhists that fervently worship the deity; the diverging views continue to be a controversial point of contention amongst Buddhist followers.