Original Painting

Wheel of life ( Samsara)

Deity

Wheel of Life

Dimensions

18x24

The Wheel of Life (Bhavacakra) is a complex Tibetan Buddhist Thangka painting that serves as a visual map of samsara—the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Held firmly in the clutches of Yama, the fearsome lord of death who symbolizes the impermanence of existence, the wheel consists of four concentric circles: at the innermost hub sit the three poisons (a pig for ignorance, a snake for aversion/anger, and a rooster for attachment/greed), which drive the karma in the surrounding layer of light and dark paths; the middle ring depicts the six realms of existence (gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings) where souls reincarnate based on their actions; and the outermost rim illustrates the twelve links of dependent origination (Pratītyasamutpāda), detailing how ignorance sequentially leads to suffering. Typically depicted in the top corner outside the wheel is the Buddha, pointing toward a white moon, symbolizing the path to liberation (Nirvana) beyond the cyclical traps of earthly life.