The painting depicts the jātaka story of one of Buddha Śākyamuni’s former lives as a Bodhisattva born into a respectable Brahmin family known for its purity. Once in the forest he encountered a starving tigress who could not feed her cubs. Out of compassion, he offered himself as food for the tigress. The Bodhisattva is shown lying naked amongst approaching tigers and their cubs in a highly stylized landscape with snow mountains, trees, rainbows, and a snow-lion with her cub. A Garuda bird watches the scene from above. There is a Tibetan inscription that describes the jātaka theme that runs across the middle and lower part of the thanka.