The black ground painting, nagtang, depicting Sri Devi standing before a flaming backdrop in pratyalidha, trampling a naked male figure lying on a lotus pedestal, the goddess wearing a peacock feather cape over a long robe with cloud patterned borders, bound at the waist with a flowing scarf and a bone apron, her feet clad in elegant boots, her long black hair secured with a jewelled crown, wearing disc earrings and beaded necklaces with pendant jewels, holding the nakula in her left hand and the sara tied with a scarf in her right, a Gelukpa monk seated above holding a pustaka in his left hand resting in his lap, his right held in vitarka mudra, all framed by a flaming ratna arch with sun and moon above and offerings below, the whole supported with a fine Ming dynasty red and gold silk brocade mount, and protected by a tie-dyed silk veil decorated with auspicious emblems.

Sri Devi, or Palden Lhamo, is considered the leading guardian of the Tibetan pantheon, and is the only female among the dharmapalaꦑ, the Guardians of the Buddhist Law. She is a protector goddess in the pantheon of most Tibetan Buddhist orders, but it is the Gelugpa that give her particular prominence. She is protector of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas and the principal guardian goddess of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Indeed, this fine painting depicts a Geluk lama directly above the goddess, and presumably this rare form of Lhamo was the lama’s personal protector. She appears here as the leader of her retinue of Twelve Goddesses, with a semi-benign presence compared with her terrifying aspect where she rides the mule across a sea of blood. Compare a very similar black-ground painting of the deity, see Pal, 1984, pl. 111.