The Primordial Rigden

The Primordial Rigden thangka (Tibetan for "scroll painting") portrays the basic enlightened nature of all human beings, their basic goodness. The details of the painting are symbolic, each one pointing to an aspect of the view, the training, or the full realization of awakened mind.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche designed this thangka to be placed on public shrines in Shambhala Centres throughout the world. He was highlighting the unique spiritual inheritance of the Shambhala community - an inheritance that braids together the Buddhist lineages preserved by the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions in Tibet, practices of the Zen and other Chinese and Japanese traditions, with the specific wisdom the Buddha imparted to King Dawa Sangpo, the first sovereign of Shambhala.

The Tibetan word Rigden means “possessor of the family.” Usually the term refers to the historical-legendary kings of Shambhala. This image is not one of the historical rigdens, but is a portrait of their enlightened essence – which is our nature as well.

The shrine in a Shambhala Centre is non-theistic: it is not used to worship something or someone external. Shrine pictures and objects function as reminders, and as provocations to awaken from the illusion of a small-minded, self-oriented life.