At the center of this manuscript cover are the gilded images of the lama Sakya Pandita (1182-1251) in apparent discourse with the Mahasidda (great adept) Virupa whose left hand is raised in the warning gesture. These central figures are surrounded by seventy-eight smaller identical images of one of the transcendental Buddhas, most likely Amoghasiddhi, the Dhyani Buddha of the north.

Idealized double portraits of great lamas and other adepts were a pictorial convention used to depict the spiritual lineage of various Tibetan monasteries. Multiple images of the same deity, like the Buddhas depicted here, were commissioned in order to increase the accumulation of merit by both the donor and the artist to help each attain a better station in their next life.