A refuge tree (Tibetan: tsokshing, "field of accumulation", also called a refuge field or merit field) is a painting of everything a Tibetan Buddhist takes refuge in, gathered on one great tree: the teachers of a lineage, the meditation deities, the Buddhas, the Dharma, the community of bodhisattvas and disciples, and the protectors. Practitioners picture this assembly in front of them as they recite refuge prayers and make prostrations, above all in the preliminary practices (ngöndro) with which tantric training begins.
How it is laid out
- The lake and the tree: a great tree rises from a lake, and its trunk divides into branches that carry the whole assembly. Not every refuge field is a tree: some set the assembly on a vast lotus or in a palace.
- The centre: the lineage's main teacher or Buddha sits at the heart of the tree. The practitioner sees this figure as one with their own root teacher.
- The lineage masters rise above the centre in tiers, often up to the Buddha from whom the lineage begins.
- The other branches: in the Karma Kagyu arrangement there are five. Besides the teachers at the centre, the meditation deities sit in front, the Buddhas on one side, the bodhisattvas and other disciples on the other, and the scriptures behind, painted as a stack of wrapped books.
- The protectors, many of them wrathful, stand below the branches.
- The beings at the foot: people and animals gather on the shore of the lake. In the visualisation the practitioner stands at the front of all beings, with mother and father beside them, and all take refuge together.
Lineages differ
Each school paints its own refuge field, because each centres on its own lineage:
- Kagyu trees, and some Sakya ones, have blue Vajradhara at the centre, holding a vajra and bell crossed at his heart. In the Karma Kagyu tree the meditation deities in front are led by Chakrasamvara.
- Gelug fields are centred on Tsongkhapa or on Shakyamuni Buddha, with the figures in descending rows. The earliest follow a 17th-century text by the First Panchen Lama, the Lama Chöpa.
- Nyingma trees, following the Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries described by Patrul Rinpoche, place Padmasambhava with his consort Yeshe Tsogyal at the centre.
Some of our paintings follow the Kagyu arrangement: blue Vajradhara at the centre of the tree, a many-armed meditation deity with a consort below him, circles of Buddhas and bodhisattvas on either side, and protectors near the base.
Painted refuge fields are a fairly late form. The visualisation is described in texts from the 12th century, but the paintings became popular only from about the 18th century, starting with the Gelug school.
In a painting
A refuge tree can hold hundreds of figures, so it is a test of planning and patience. Look for a clear structure, with the trunk, branches and tiers easy to follow, and small figures that stay individual: distinct faces, correct hand gestures and attributes, and the correct colour for each deity. Lineage masters are often painted in near-identical rows, and good work keeps their faces alive. To recognise a refuge tree at a glance: a great tree rising from a lake, crowded with figures around one central teacher or Buddha.
