- The divine refuge tree arises from the waters of Lake Dhanakosha, with rays of light emanating from all the figures, illuminating the world
- Padmasambhava appears at the top of the center branch, seated upon a lotus and lion-throne, and wearing his characteristic lotus-hat and the three robes that represent his mastery of the three yanas. He holds a khatvanga in his left hand, representing Vajravarahi who in this context symbolizes the wisdom of non-conceptual mind. His radiant aura is encircled with lotus flowers.
- Above Padmasambhava are eleven cloud-borne gurus, the Dzogchen lineage masters of the Dudjom lineage:
- At the very top, blue Samsantabhadra and his white consort Samantabhadri represent the dharmakāya. Samantabhadra represents the unconditioned naked awareness aspect of buddhahood. Therefore he is depicted as naked. Where Samantabhadra represents the cognizant aspect of the nature of mind, Samantabhadri is associated with emptiness, and represents the primordially pure (ka dag), open aspect of the nature of mind. Their union represents the inseparability of emptiness and cognizance.
- Below them, white Vajrasattva represents the sambhogakāya
- Below him, the human form of Garab Dorje represents the nirmāṇakāya. He was the first human teacher of Dzogchen to appear in our world.
- Others such as:
- Manjusrimitra
- Shri Singha, who taught Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra. He was the main student of Manjusrimitra. He introduced Dzogchen to Tibet.
- Vimalamitra
- Yeshe Tsogyal
- Dudjom Lingpa
- On the right branch (our left side) reside all the Buddhas including Shakyamuni Buddha in nirmāṇakāya fashion
- On the left branch (our right side) reside all the bodhisattvas (the 8 bodhisattvas) and all the arhats (disciples of the Buddha)
- 8 bodhisattvas include:
- Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig, སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་) — compassion
- Manjushri (Jampelyang, འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས་) — wisdom
- Vajrapani (Chag na Dorje, ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་) — power and spiritual energy
- Kṣitigarbha (Sayi Nyingpo, ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་) — vows, protection, and beings in difficult realms
- Akasagarbha (Namkha Nyingpo, ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོ་) — vastness, memory, and virtue
- Sarvanivaranavishkambhin (Dripa Namsel, སྒྲིབ་པ་རྣམ་སེལ་) — removal of obstacles and obscurations
- Maitreya (Jampa, བྱམས་པ་) — loving-kindness and the future Buddha
- Samantabhadra (Kuntuzangpo, ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་) — universal virtue and the enlightened activity of wisdom
- This is the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, distinct from the Samantabhadra at the top of the refuge tree
- On the front branch reside all the herukas
- On the back branch