This painting at Aluvihara represents the Himalaya mountain range, and the four great rivers that flow from it, as understood in Tibetan (sic) cosmology. These rivers symbolically issue from the mouth of a lion, elephant, horse, and peacock respectively. Their names are variously given, depending on the source, but the Indus is always included among their number. It is interesting to find a Tibetan sacred landscape as far south as Sri Lanka. The course of the rivers has been arranged into a circular maze, that could even be interpreted as a sort of mandala or concentration aid, where viewers can attempt to trace the individual course of each river in their mind's eye.