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Locked in a passionate embrace, the male Buddha Kalachakra and his female partner, Vishvamata, manifest the ideal of complete enlightenment, the supreme knowledge that leads to spiritual liberation. In Buddhist thought, male deities are identified with compassionate action and intention, while female deities embody wisdom. Since the union of these qualities is essential to the enlightened state of a Buddha, the sexual union of such deities forms a powerful visual metaphor for Buddhahood. Kalachakra wears an elephant-skin cape, symbolizing the destruction of ignorance, and a tiger-skin loincloth, symbolizing the destruction of hatred. Together, the deities trample personifications of anger (holding a trident and drum) and desire (holding a bow and arrow). With arms radiating outward and faces looking in all directions, they are all-powerful and all-knowing.