This Buddhist painting depicts a ritual in which Buddha ushers all beings to nirvana by giving them “sweet dew” or nectar called gamno, where the nectar represents Buddha’s teaching of enlightenment. Paintings like “The Nectar Ritual” were frequently produced to represent the wish that all the souls that were suffering from misfortune and disgrace from their previous lives could enlighten themselves by accepting Buddha’s teaching, and thus reincarnate as a superior being in their next life.
While most nectar ritual paintings feature an altar filled with food and a scene from a Buddhist ceremony, this painting dispenses with them. Instead, the large hungry ghost dominating the center of the painting symbolizes the beings suffering from pain and hunger.