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.
Tsatsa Molds are created for a variety of religious or community purposes. Sometimes the tsatsa clay is mixed with the ashes of holy teachers. Tsatsa can be made from a number of different elements but clay is the most common. The pieces exhibited here are mostly Indian in origin yet found in the Dungkar Cave of West Tibet.
Diagrammatic Art is art, primarily paintings and murals, intended to convey large amounts, or portions, of highly codified information to the viewer. The principal categories of Diagrammatic art are:
(1) Charts
(2) Mandalas
(3) Refuge Field
(4) Wheel of Life
(5) Meditation Instructions
(6) Demoness of Tibet
Nechung Monastery is located just West of Lhasa below the much larger Drepung Monastery. It is most famous as the home of the Nechung Oracle. The images are predominantly of the fabulous large format brightly coloured murals depicting the retinue figures in the entourage of the worldly deity Pehar Gyalpo. The images have been added to the Ariana Maki Photographic Archive.
A separate building at the Samye Monastery complex houses the special protector named Tsi'u Marpo. Although a worldly deity by definition, he was placed as the guardian of Samye in the 17th century after the 5th Dalai Lama moved the previous Samye protector, Pehar Gyalpo, to Nechung Monastery (located immediately below the huge Drepung Monastery complex on the outskirts of Lhasa).
The Tsi'u Marpo Ukang is filled with masks and sculpture along with one monkey (who stays outside). It is said that in the collection of Tsi'u Marpo retinue figures the monkey is the secret messenger for the protector deity.
In one of the larger side buildings at Samye Monastery a series of murals can be found that depict the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas according to the System of Nagarjuna. They are very unusual because of the iconography - specifically in how each Buddha holds or displays their hand attributes, the manner of the clothing, along with uncharacteristic shirts covering the upper torso. (Also see the Confession Buddhas Main Page).
Samye Monastery is a complex of buildings encircled by a wall. In the main temple there are a number of floors and various rooms filled with murals and some sculpture.
Samye Monastery is acknowledged as the first Buddhist Monastery built in Tibet under the direction of Shantarakshita, Trisong Detsen, and with the help of Padmasambhava. These images are landscape views and architectural images. The photos were taken during the summer of 2007.
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).
The temple of Lhakang Chenmo in Sakya Town, Tibet, is famous for it very large and massive pillars. There are four principal pillars in the main temple of Lhakang Chenmo. Each of the pillars are named and have a special story relating their symbolic meaning and how they came to be in the main temple of Sakya.
- Yellow Pillar
- Tiger Pillar
- Wild Yak Pillar
- Black Blood Dripping Pillar
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)
The HAR Testimonial Page has been updated with an index and three new contributions from Donald Lopez of the University of Michigan, Rob Linrothe of Northwestern University and Bryan Cuevas of Florida Sate University.
"The HAR website is requesting, for the purposes of grant writing and fund raising, scholars, academics, and educators of all kinds to send in testimonials of support to be posted on the site. The website was created and went live in 1997. Technology has changed, hardware is more robust, and software offers many more features and benefits to the end users. The HAR website needs to look towards the future with plans for new technologies, upgrades to existing infra-structure and new user features. Please help us in moving Himalayan Art Resources and the field forward. Thank You".
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).
Chaturmukha Mahakala is one of several principal forms of Mahakala in Buddhist Tantra. He is associated with the Guhysasamja Tantra as well as the Twenty-five and Fifty Chapter Mahakala Tantras.
This painting, dated mid to late 15th century, is the earliest work on the subject known to the HAR website team. It has always been considered very secret by the Sakya and related Traditions who practiced this form of Mahakala. Aside from the early date the painting is extremely interesting because of the lineage of teachers found at the top and upper sides of the composition. The top register contains the typical Sakya lineage of teachers for the Chaturmukha. However, the lineage then changes to the Jonang lineage and then ending with Je Tsongkapa and his two principal students Gyaltsab and Kedrub. Khedrub is the second to last figure in the succession of lineage teachers depicted on the right hand side. (See the identified lineage teachers).
Repousse is a metal working technique of hammering and shaping metal. Finished works are often flat and highly decorative with figures, floral motifs and symbolic offerings as commonly found on torana examples (throne backs). Amulet boxes are also commonly made using this technique.
Figurative subjects and architectural representations such as temples, stupas and mandalas can sometimes be found completed in the round rather than flat single sided artworks. These pieces are also deceptively light weight.
There can be confusion when identifying objects as repousse because in many cases a figurative subject might be created mostly from hammered metal but the hands, head, feet or hand attributes could be cast from metal and assembled onto the repousse body to create the final work. The same is true for architectural representations where some pieces are repousse and others are cast.
Built in the mid 15th century with work starting in 1427, the murals of the Gyantse Kumbum are undoubtedly the greatest source of Tantric Buddhist iconographic forms anywhere in Tibet, or likely the world. It will take some time before all of the 600 plus images are properly catalogued on the HAR website.
Bon and Buddhist monastic shirts don't always fold in the same direction.
With Buddhist sculpture the shirt typically folds to the right. However, with sets of paintings depicting lineage teachers it is very different and it can go either way. A very good example of this alternating folds is found with the Karma Kamtsang Mahamudra Lineage painting set from Rumtek Monastery. This set of paintings depicts a central Vajradhara in a single composition and each following lineage teacher, also in a single composition, is staggered to the right or the left of the central axis of the painting. In the early compositions of the set all of the paintings that have the teacher on the left have the shirt folded to the left. All of the early teachers on the right with shirts have them folded to the right. The later teachers in the same series begin to be less rigid and some are folded left and some folded right regardless of their position to the right or left of the central axis. This establishes that there is a flexibility with artists painting Buddhist subjects.
The shirts of the Bon tradition are similar to the yungdrung symbol. The yungdrung can only properly be depicted turning to the left. Buddhists generally don't have a preference either way for the direction a yungdrung points.
The Bon religion typically folds the shirt to the left side in the majority of examples for both painting and sculpture found on the HAR website. Buddhist shirts more often than not will fold to the right side, however for the Buddhists it depends on the artist and the composition.
