Choying Dorje was both a Tibetan artist and a religious teacher - head of the Karma Kagyu (Kamtsang) Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism - the 10th Karmapa (1604-1674). His art is unique and the style recognizable. The paintings are known for bright colours, simple repetitive human figures and great detail and care when depicting animals and birds. Arhats were a popular theme as well as deity figures such as Avalokiteshvara, Tara and Marichi. The only nearly complete set of paintings known to have been done by Choying Dorje, and still in existence today, are a set of paintings depicting the Life Story of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Of the nearly two hundred works of art that Choying Dorje created during his life, and subsequently recorded in the various biographies, approximately thirty pieces are currently known to exist. The paintings are most plentiful with agreement amongst most scholars as to their authenticity and attribution. However, with the sculpture, there are fewer known pieces and a greater disagreement as to which sculpture can be accurately attributed to Choying Dorje. (See the Choying Dorje Outline Page).

A new outline page for the Karma Kagyu Lineage Painting Sets has been added to the site. This page accompanies the Lineage Sets Main Page posted previously. Dozens of new thematic image set pages have been created and hundreds of images have been reviewed in the process of trying to re-construct as many Karma Kagyu painting sets as possible. The principal lineage painting set is the 'Golden Garland' which depicts the lineage from Vajradhara, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa to the 1st Karmapa Dusum Kyenpa. There are other painting sets which appear to be primarily incarnation lineage sets however more research needs to be done. Links to the five main incarnation teachers, Karmapa, Shamar, Situ, Gyaltasb and Nenang Pawo, are found on the Outline Page, Painting Sets Page and the Karma Kagyu traditions Main Page.

Lineage Painting Sets make a up a substantial portion of Himalayan and Tibetan art. The two largest single groups of lineage painting sets are the Sakya Lamdre Lineage and the Karma Kagyu Mahamudra Lineage. The Karma Kagyu sets have been organized into a list and same set paintings grouped togther. Curently there are twenty-nine different sets identified on the HAR site. The first set has also been expanded into a custom page to re-construct the likely total number and order of the paintings. See Painting Set 1.

Tonpa Shenrab Outline Page uploaded. The page lists and links all of the various Bon art and iconography, paintings and sculpture, related to Tonpa Shenrab and his various manifestations with an emphasis on the many sets of paintings such as Life Stories.

5th Dalai Lama Outline Page uploaded. The page lists and links all of the various art, paintings and sculpture, related to the 5th Dalai Lama such as the Dalai Lama incarnation lineage, the Panchen Lamas, Desi Sanggye Gyatso and the Potala Palace.

"In April 2009, the Alain Bordier Foundation opened the Tibet Museum in the heart of the medieval town of Gruyères in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

The Tibet Museum houses an important collection of Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects. It consists of about three hundred objects, mainly originating from Tibet. Among the statues, however, are a number of objects that were manufactured in the ancient Buddhist cultures surrounding Tibet: rare Buddhist sculptures from Nepal, Kashmir, Swat, and other Himalaya regions, in addition to examples from Northern India and Burma (Myanmar). Like other collectors of Tibetan art, Alain Bordier established his collection during the last quarter of the 20th century, when Tibetan refugees brought great numbers of religious objects into exile in India and Nepal. It was the wish of Alain Bordier to share his fascination with as many people as possible and to preserve and hold together these miraculously preserved sacred objects.

For this purpose he has founded the Alain Bordier Foundation to preserve the Buddhist collection and to maintain the Tibet Museum."  Ulrich von Schroeder

The Tibet Museum Collection:
- Tibetan Paintings
- Tibetan Sculpture 1
- Tibetan Sculpture 2
- Nepal: Painting & Sculpture
- Swat Region & Kashmir
- North Eastern India & Burma

HAR Special Features & Tools Page : Himalayan Art Resources is a fully curated art collection with over 35,000 images drawn from public and private holdings around the world. The images (objects) are identified according to subject, region, date, ethnicity, religion, set affiliation, inscription, contextual relationships and more. The site has several hundred thousand words of description, documentation and explanation, and is encyclopedic in breadth. A unique feature of the site is the extensive contextualization of single images with a wealth of related material in the database supported by the indices, glossaries, outline and custom pages. Furthermore there are embedded biographies & histories, lineage lists, chronologies, Tibetan & Sanskrit audio files, Tibetan and Sanskrit language files, along with links (TBRC) to biographical & text records.

Special Features & Tools Page:
The Five Most Powerful Tools
The Five Special Features
Art Sets - Painting & Sculpture
Custom Pages & Testmonials