A painting at the door
Visitors to Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, from Ladakh to Bhutan, often notice a large round painting in the porch or entrance hall. It shows a wheel held in the grip of a fearsome figure and divided into many small scenes. This is the Bhavachakra, usually translated as the Wheel of Life or the Wheel of Becoming. It is found in Tibetan monasteries and also appears in some other Buddhist settings, and its imagery is traditionally explained as a teaching about how beings go on being reborn and how that cycle can end.
The title of this article refers to a “pilgrimage”, but the wheel is not a pilgrimage site. The connection is simply that pilgrims and visitors encounter the painting at the entrance, before going in to the main hall. Seeing it is part of the ordinary experience of visiting such a monastery, not a separate journey.
Who holds the wheel
The whole wheel is held by a monstrous figure, usually identified as Yama, the lord of death. The common reading is that he stands for impermanence: nothing within the cycle escapes change and death. In some versions he wears a crown of skulls. Do not read the image as a portrait of a punishing god. Teachers usually explain it as a picture of how things are, not as a threat.
Above the wheel, or beside it, a figure is often shown pointing to the moon or to a way out. This is the Buddha, indicating that release is possible. Tradition associates the origin of the painting with the Buddha himself, but the story of its first making is a devotional account, and visitors are not expected to treat it as history.
The hub: three poisons
At the centre of the wheel are three animals chasing each other’s tails: a rooster, a snake and a pig. They represent the three roots of suffering, commonly named as attachment or craving, aversion or hatred, and ignorance or confusion. In some images the three are shown in different order, since explanations vary slightly by teacher.
Around the hub is a ring divided into light and dark halves, in which figures climb upward or fall downward. This is often explained as the working of karma, the idea that actions have results.
The six realms
The large middle band is divided into six sections, the realms of rebirth:
- the gods (devas), living in long pleasure and also subject to decline
- the demigods (asuras), marked by jealousy and conflict
- humans, regarded in many teachings as a fortunate rebirth because it allows for practice
- animals, shown with fear and ignorance
- hungry ghosts (pretas), shown with huge stomachs and tiny mouths, which stands for insatiable craving
- hell beings, shown suffering in heat and cold
These realms are understood in several ways. Some Buddhists read them literally, as places where beings are reborn; others read them as mental states people pass through in daily life. Both readings are heard, and traditions differ. The wider framework is explained in the article on Buddhist cosmology.
A small Buddha figure is often painted in each realm, for example holding a different object suited to that realm, suggesting that teaching is available everywhere.
The outer rim: twelve links
The rim of the wheel contains twelve small pictures, representing the twelve links of dependent origination. This is the traditional Buddhist account of how suffering arises from conditions that give rise to one another. A common list, with the usual picture in each, is:
- ignorance (a blind person)
- formations (a potter)
- consciousness (a monkey)
- name and form (people in a boat)
- six sense bases (a house with windows)
- contact (a couple embracing)
- feeling (an arrow in the eye)
- craving (a person drinking)
- grasping (a person picking fruit)
- becoming (a pregnant woman)
- birth (a woman giving birth)
- aging and death (a corpse carried away)
Image details vary from painting to painting. Different Buddhist traditions also interpret the chain in different ways, for example spread over three lifetimes or as a pattern of the present moment. A monk or teacher can explain the version used in a particular monastery.
Why it stands at the entrance
Tibetan teachers often say that the painting is placed at the door so that people entering the monastery are reminded of what they are practising for. It also served as a teaching device for people who could not read, with a monk or storyteller pointing to each scene. The idea is that one enters the temple having seen the problem, and finds the way out inside, in the images of the Buddha and the teachings.
Similar teaching images include the Tibetan thangka painting tradition, where scroll paintings are used for instruction. The Wheel of Life can be painted on a wall or on a thangka.
Looking at it as a visitor
- Take your time. The painting rewards slow viewing, starting at the centre and working outward.
- Ask before taking photographs; some monasteries restrict them, especially of interiors.
- Do not touch the painted surface, which is often old and delicate.
- Stand quietly if others are praying nearby.
- If a monk is willing to explain, listen respectfully and accept that different teachers emphasise different readings.
Remember that many monasteries with such murals lie at high altitude and may require permits or have seasonal access; check current official sources, and read about altitude sickness awareness before travelling.