 A key function of a Refuge Tree painting is to depict the transmission lineage of the particular sect or tradition.As David P. Jackson & Janice Jackson stated in "Tibetan Thangka Painting", "For the religious practitioner these paintings embodied the whole lineage through which the tradition descended, from its ultimate origin down to the practitioner’s own teacher".The Jacksons go on to explain that the practitioner imagines the main central figure of the Refuge Tree (the identity of which depends on the particular tradition) as the essence of one’s main teacher or Root Lama.