A painting depicting the life story of Tangtong Gyalpo, along with details, has been added to the Tangtong Gyalpo Main Page. This composition along with three others from the same set are currently the only known examples of the subject. A large mural painting of the life story is known to have existed in Tibet and it is very possible that other mural depictions might be identified in Bhutan.

Tsangyang Gyatso, the 6th Dalai Lama, is certainly the most controversial of the Dalai Lama incarnations. Was he wrongly chosen? Was he the previous abbot of Shalu Monastery? Was he the illigitimate son of the 5th Dalai Lama? Was he murdered by the Mongols, or did he live a long life according to what is written in the secret biography?

Pema Lingpa is one of the most famous Nyingma Terton's of Bhutan. His legacy extends throughout Bhutan, Tibet and the Himalayan regions. The murals located on the third floor of the Lhukang Temple situated behind the Potala Palace in Lhasa are believed to depict tantric systems based on the writings of Pema Lingpa.

Cityscapes & Monastery Plans are a specific subject of Himalayan and Tibetan style painting. The most common cities, or towns, reproduced are Lhasa, Shigatse, Samye Monastery in Central Tibet and Labrang Monastery in Amdo. Other locations can be found but are not reproduced as often. Sacred sites and pilgrimage sites depicting the route of circumambulation can also be found reproduced in art.

Ragavajra Ganapati originates in Tibet with the tradition of Jowo Atisha in the 11th century. In general, Buddhist forms of Ganapati function as wealth deities within the Tantric system. This specific form of Ganapati is clearly the most sexually explicit and possibly the most 'pornographically outrageous' in all of Tantric Buddhism. The best work is certainly the sculpture with clear distinctions between the three faces along with detail and movement in the limbs seen from the front and back. Three images of a mural have also been added from one of the smaller chapels in the Gyantse Kumbum.

Basic Buddhist Meditation Instructions for Calm Abiding have very cleverly been created as a visual narrative. The idea of relating the mind to an unruly elephant along with the monkey and other elements in the visual example of Calm Abiding meditation originates in the writings of Asanga and then later in the meditation commentaries of Je Tsongkapa. It is thought that the artistic depiction of the practice is relatively late and possibly first arose in the 19th century as a wall mural. The image above is of a poster published in India in the early 1970s. An original Tibetan version of the painting has not yet been located. Images of a Bhutanese mural from Thimpu Tango Shedra have been added.

At the time of King Songtsen Gampo Tibet was believed to be a supine Demoness prone to sudden and violent movement and unwelcoming to Buddhism. Songtsen Gampo with the help of his Chinese bride mapped the form of the demoness and then constructed temples at all of the key locations above the principal organs and joints. (See Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness: Royal Buddhist Geomancy in the Srong btsan sgam po Mythology. Martin A. Mills, University of Aberdeen. JIATS, no. 3 (December 2007), THL #T3108, 47 pp. (c)2007 by Martin A. Mills, IATS, and THL).

Additional images have been added to the Wangdu Nyingpo main page. He was the 29th Sakya Tridzin and considered the second Padmasambhava of this Age. He was considered to be a rebirth of Ngor Khenchen Palden Chokyong and others. Most of his profound teachings were received from his father Kunga Lodro, the previous Sakya Tridzin. Wangdu Nyingpo constructed a new Vajrabhairava temple in Sakya with a bigger than life size central image along with the twelve wrathful retinue figures slightly larger than the size of a man. Along with that he constructed a new protector chapel with very large sculpture. Renowned as a 'treasure Revealer' (terton) his books are still available and read today.

Wangdu Nyinpo is sometimes employed as a guruyoga practice based on a text that he wrote himself. He is depicted in a wrathful form with either a black hat topped with a raven or a standard Sakya hat with lappets draped across the top.

The 69th Abbot of Ngor Evam Choden Monastery, Ngagwang Yontan Gyatso (1902-1963), was believed by some to be an incarnation of Wangdu Nyingpo, as is the current Sakya Tridzin, Ngagwang Kunga (born 1941).

Bhurkumkuta, Krodha Raja, a meditational deity specifically employed for the eradication of sickness and disease. The emphasis for the function of Bhukumkuta is sickness of an individual person while the emphasis for all contagious diseases in general is found with the deity Parnashavari or Medicine Buddha. Many specific illnesses can be associated with any number of other deities such as blood disorders with Hayagriva, leprosy and skin disorders caused by nagas are relieved by the meditational deity Garuda for example. Bhurkumkuta is found in the Nartang Gyatsa and Rinjung Gyatsa collections of sadhanas (practices). Both of these collections of Indian Buddhist practice were compiled in Tibet. Bhurkumkuta is more commonly found as a minor figure in painted compositions (see example).

There are four commonly known forms of the deity in the Tibetan 'New Tantras.' Three of the four are differentiiated by colour: smoky, blue-black and green. The smoky-coloured deity is associated with the Sakya Tradition and the blue-black and green associated with the Kadam Tradition of Atisha. The fourth form is the most unusual because it is female. It is very unusual for deities to have both a male and female form - this may even be the only instance found in Tibetan Buddhism.

Like the female healing deity Parnashavari, Bhurkumkuta is generally unrelated to any other popular or more common Buddhist deities such as Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara or Vajrapani. Both Bhurkumkuta and Parnashavari have their own historical identities and histories in Indian, Himalayan and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism.

Forms of Bhurkumkuta:
- Smoky-coloured (Sakya Tradition)
- Blue-black (Atisha Tradition)
- Green, Bhurkumkuta
- Krodhini, Bhurkumkuta (female deity)

There are two well known traditions for the standing Nila Achala. The more common of the two standing forms is the Achala of the Jowo Atisha Tradition. The second of the forms belongs to the Mitra Yogin Tradition. In the Kadam Tradition of Atisha the Achala is known as one of the 'Four Deities of Kadam' (kadam lha shi). In the Mitra Tradition there are eleven deities in total.

There are several other Tantric deities which can be easily confused with the standing form of Achala such as Krodha Vajrapani, Black Manjushri and Vignantaka. There is also a retinue protector deity named Achala that is part of the group known as the Ten Wrathful Ones.

The top of the head is often adorned with a very small figure of Akshobhya Buddha. Some texts name Vajrasattva as the figure.

Under the feet of Achala is the prostrate form of either a single figure or two figures. According to the Nartang Gyatsa text of Chim Namkha Drag (1210-1285) the single prostrate figure is Vignayakaraja with an elephant head. According to the Rinjung text of Taranata (1575-1634) there are two figures, the Elephant Trunk Ganesha and Maheshvara (Shiva).

"...Arya Achala with a body blue-black in colour, one face and two arms. The right hand holds up to the sky a wisdom sword. The left [performs] a wrathful gesture together with a lasso. [Achala] has three eyes, red and round, orange hair bristling upwards. The limbs are adorned with snake ornaments and jewels, a tiger skin as a lower garment. Within a vast swirling mass of wisdom fire [he] stands with the right leg bent and the left straight atop Vignayakaraja [the king of hindrances]. Vajrasattva adorns the head." (Drub Tab Kun Tu, vol.13, Nartang Gyatsa, pp.861-862. TBRC W19221).