News

A Prajnaparamita Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

The Milarepa Main Page has been updated with new images and pages along with smoother navigation between pages. Additional work has been done on identifying single composition life stories and life story painting sets.

The Masterworks Main Page has been divided for easier navigation into three sub sections: Subject Sets, Teachers and Deities.

A School of Zanabazar Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

The Dalai Lama Main Page has been updated with additional images and content.

The only complete painting sets of the Dalai Lama incarnation lineage are the Gold Silk Set of Tibet House, New Delhi, and the five composition set of the Field Museum, Chicago. Both sets use the same exact iconographic model. The Tibet House set is unpainted while the Field Museum is fully painted and one of the finest examples known.

Unlike the subject of the Panchen Lamas, the Dalai Lama subject has very few paintings where the incarnation lineage is composed within a single painting. Only one example is represented here - single composition full lineage.

A Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

A Marpa Chokyi Lodro Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

A Milarepa Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

A Twelve Yaksha Generals Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page. The Twelve Generals make up part of the Fifty-one Deity Mandala of Medicine Buddha. Each of the generals holds a unique attribute in their right hand and a mongoose in the left hand. Because of the general look, expression and attire which is known as King Appearance in Himalayan Style Art it is very common for the individual figures of the Generals to be miss-identified as either Vaishravana, Jambhala or the very elusive Kubera.

The so called Crowned Buddha has been a source of much discussion in the academic art world for decades. Generally the crowned Buddha is believed to be a depiction of Shakyamuni Buddha with the added attribute of a crown such as a king would wear. The notable difference between Shakyammuni Buddha wearing a crown and the Five Symbolic Buddhas is that they, unlike the Buddha, also wear fine heavenly clothing along with rich adornments such as earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Shakyamuni still maintains his nirmanakaya - monastic - appearance plus the added crown. The Five Symbolic Buddhas appear in sambhogakaya form with the full dress of a bodhisattva or heavenly being.

Shakyamuni Buddha & the Vajra Seat refers to the the vajra scepter located on the seat in front of the Buddha. It is always horizontal rather than upright and appears as if partially sunk into the seat. The scepter refers to the time and geographic location where the Buddha reached enlightenment at Bodhgaya (Vajrasana), India. He was also seated in vajrasana posture with the right leg folded over the left and was mentally focussed on the vajra samadhi meditation.

A Sitatapatra Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

The female deity Sitatapatra, according to the Sarma Schools (New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism - Sakya, Kagyu, Jonang, Gelug, etc.), belongs to the Kriya Classification of Tantra. From the variety of forms in which she appears, one faced, three faced, five faced and thousand faced, the one thousand faced Sitatapatra is the most popular and the form most commonly depicted in artistic representation.

The seven paintings of the Dalai Lama Incarnation Lineage set by the artist Kazi Lhazo (circa 1800) have been annotated with the names of each of the primary and secondary figures.

The thirteen paintings of the Dalai Lama Incarnation Lineage set have been annotated with the names of each of the primary and secondary figures. This complete set of compositions belongs to the collection of Tibet House, New Delhi, India.

The five paintings from this Bhutanese Drugpa Kagyu Sadhanamala Set have been annotated with the names of each of the figures.

The nine paintings from this Twenty-one Tara set have been annotated with the name of the specific Tara, placement in the over all composition of twenty-one, along with the names of the additional teacher, meditational deity and protector.

A three composition painting set depicting the Panchen Lama Incarnation Lineage: currently only a single composition, #2 (right 1), is known to exist in the collection of the Newark Museum. The three paintings are based on the iconography and style of the Nartang block print thirteen painting set. (See the Nartang Panchen iconographhy page).

The Karma Pakshi Main Page has been updated. Karma Pakshi is well known for being the only Karmapa to have a goatee depicted in art. He has three basic iconographic appearances: [1] Dharma teaching gesture, [2] two hands across the knees, and [3] the right hand holding a vajra and the left a peg (kila).

The Taglung Tangpa Chenpo page has been updated. Tashi Pel (1142-1210) was the founder of Taglung Monastery (1180) in central Tibet, north of Lhasa, the head monastery for the Taglungpa sub-lineage of the Marpa/Dagpo Kagyu School.