News

A gallery page for Repeated Figures Composition (Gold Ground) has been added.

A gallery page of Aphorisms for Iconography has been added. Some of these aphorisms are obvious while others are a little obscure.

A gallery page for Non-standard Forms of Lokeshvara has been added. Avalokiteshvara can take on many different forms as well as forms of other deities. The most non-standard of these forms are when he assumes the appearance of other unrelated deities.

The Hidden Images Page has been updated with additional images.

The Repeated Figures Main Page has been updated with additional images.

Repeated images surrounding a central figure are common in Himalayan and Tibetan art. The images of paintings found on this page are only a selection from some of the larger museum collections on the HAR website. The majority of such paintings are late productions, post 17th century. These paintings do however create some confusion when looking at earlier, pre-17th century, paintings which principally employ the use of registers. A confusion over dating can arise when thinking that all paintings with registers are early and all paintings with floating figures and landscape are late

The Tonpa Shenrab Life Story Painting Sets Page has been updated with additional images and links.

A painting set depicting a large central figure in each composition with at least six of the Eighty-four Mahasiddhas per composition. In working out the numbers of mahasiddhas and the number of compositions then this should be a fifteen painting set. Five of the compositions depict the Five Forms of Tsongkapa. The Milarepa figure at the center of the second painting indicates that it is most likely that the other compositions would depict a selection of famous Tibetan religious teachers.

The Bon Religion Field of Accumulation Page has been updated with additional images.

The Bon Religion Main Page has been updated and re-organized with additional links and galleries.

The Buddhist Iconography Main Page has been updated.

The Surya, God of the Sun Page, has been updated with additional images.

The Chandra, God of the Moon Page, has been updated with additional images.

In Himalayan style art there are basically Eleven Types of Deity Appearance. The first five appearances are the same as those found in the Eleven Figurative Forms which describe all figurative forms - persons and deities. Those first five are the main types of deity appearance in Himalayan art and the most common. The additional six are minor forms of deity appearance and include (6) Universal Appearance, (7) Layered Appearance (Deities & Figures), (8) Stacked Appearance, (9) Ithyphallic Appearance, (10) Androgynous & Gender Reversed Appearance and (11) Weird Gods & Fantastical Appearance.

Layered Deities & Figures can be found in Hindu, Bon and Buddhist Iconography. Layering also occurs with yantras, depicting deities or letters, placed over the figures.

Stacked Deities are an unusual iconographic form where two or more deities are stacked one above the other. Often they are sitting around the neck of the deity below or standing on the shoulders. Stacked deities are found in both Hindu, Bon and Buddhist iconography.

The Green Tara Painting Set 1 has been updated with additional images.

A complete set of paintings depicting the Avadana Stories, in the Situ Panchen design style, has been added and linked to the Avadana (Situ Panchen) Main Page.

The Dorje Shugden Page has been updated with additional content, links and images. Also see the Controversial Art Main Page for more subjects.

The Terdag Lingpa Gyurme Dorje Page has been updated with additional images.

The Shristhikantha Lokeshvara Page has been updated with additional images.