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This painting depicts the 7th Dalai Lama Kalzang Gyatso (1708-1757). The composition belongs to a set of likely seven paintings depicting secret Tantric practices. At this time, this composition is the only known example from the full set of paintings (see detail images). There are several other known sets with the same identical composition. The most complete set is in the collection of Tibet House, New Delhi.

It is believed that the central figure is Kalzang Gyatso, the 7th Dalai Lama surrounded by siddha figures and Tantric symbolism. The entire set of seven paintings must be understood as a whole to be able to understand individual compositions such as this painting.

According to the Tibet House painting set the known images and compositions are:

1. Avalokiteshvara

2. Kalzang Gyatso

3. Kalzang Gyatso (?)

4. Siddha Figure (Kalzang Gyatso?)

5. Chakrasamvara Meditational Deity

6. Kalachakra Meditational Deity

7. (Unknown subject)

Surrounding the figure of Kalzang Gyatso there are two sets of eight siddha figures. The outer eight siddhas are named along with the names of eight sacred locations known as a pita (pitha). There are twenty-four & thirty-two sacred pitas in India that are associated with Tantric places of worship. The twenty-four locations are also code names for twenty-four points in the physical body of the Tantric practitioner - the Body Mandala. Two of the other paintings in the complete set have an additional eight siddhas per painting accounting for the remaining sixteen sacred pitas of India (see the Kalachakra and Siddha figure paintings).

The eight siddhas inhabiting the inner rocky enclosure do not have any name inscriptions and remain unidentified.

In front of the throne seat is a table with various offerings arranged which include the five meats, alcohol and a large white 'torma' - ritual food offering. The five goddesses in dancing postures located at the lower front are the Sense Offering Goddesses representing [1] touch, [2] smell, [3] sight, [4] sound, and [5] taste. (See the numbered image).

There are a number of hidden images placed in the composition. How many can you find?

The Bhutan Main Page has been updated with many new site locations, write-ups and images - murals, painting, sculpture and architecture. 

Ariana Maki Photographic Archive (Bhutan):

- Bumthang Tang Mebartsho

- Bumthang Ura Dzong

- Chendebji Chorten Trongsa

- Gangtey Gonpa Wangdue Phodrang

- Paro Chumphu

- Paro Dzong

- Paro Gorinang

- Paro Shrine

- Taktsang

- Third King Chorten Thimphu

- Miscellaneous

- Miscellaneous 2

- Bumthang Chamkhar Tamzhing

- Paro Dzongdrakha

- Paro Kyichu

- Paro Thongdrol

- Thimphu Chang Gankha Lhakhang

- Thimphu Tango Shedra

Padmasambhava life story paintings can be found in sets of compositions, often nine in number, or they can be found as wall murals in temples. It is very common to find sets depicting the principal form of Padmasambhava along with the Eight Forms, or manifestations, in single compositions.

It is not all that common to find Padmasambhava life story paintings and the Eight Forms in a single composition. On this page there are three individual paintings and one image of a partial wall mural depicting the life story and Eight Forms. Two of the images are from Tibet and two are from Bhutan.

The most detailed of the images is HAR #90161. The painting has some damage but the integrity and beauty of the painting and creativity of the artist has not been lost. The over-all composition is wonderful but the true magnificence of the painting is in the details. The composition of the painting is also unique because the Eight Forms follow the chronology of events in the story where as the other three images on the page do not.

It has become, over the last several hundred years, the artistic convention to arrange the Eight Forms of Padmasambhava according to iconographic hierarchy rather than to follow the strict chronology of the life story. Typically the celestial forms of Padmasambhava appear at the top, followed by the earthly forms and lastly the two wrathful forms at the bottom left and right of a composition.

The Padmasambhava Main Page has been updated and organized.

Along with Trisong Detsen and Shantarakshita, Padmasambhava is considered one of the principal early teachers to bring Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century, Padmasambhava has numerous forms representing outer, inner and secret aspects of his spiritual being.

Within the Oral (Kama) Tradition of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Padmasambhava was born in Northern India as the son of a king, or minister. In the Revealed Treasure (Terma) Tradition he was born on a lotus in Dhanakosha lake as an emanation of the Buddha Amitabha. There is even some evidence to suggest that Padmasambhava came from South India and that he was the brother-in-law of the Indian Abbott Shantarakshita, builder of the first monastery in Tibet. (See Padmasambhava Life-story Painting).

Padmasambhava: Forms & Subjects:

- Padmasambhava Outline

- Padmasambhava Iconography Sub-sets Outline

- Life Story Paintings (Miscellaneous)

- Life Story Painting Set: Shechen

- Life Story & Eight Forms (Single Painting)

- Eight Forms (All Images)

- Eight Forms Outline

- Eight Forms: Dege Blockprints

- Eight Forms: Prajnaparamita Text

- Eight Forms: Tibet House Set

- Terma Representations

- Totreng Tsal: Five Forms

- Meditational Forms Outline

- Copper Coloured Mountain

- Copper Coloured Mountain (Chogyur Lingpa)

- Yeshe Tsogyal

- Twenty-five Disciples

- Others....

Power Deities are the third category of the four traditional Tantric Buddhist categories of deities according to activity type, or function. The function and nature of power in Tantric practice is to accomplish tasks and wishes quickly. Power deities are most often red in colour and generally either peaceful in appearance or slightly peaceful and slightly wrathful. A certain element of danger for the practitioner is associated with power deity practices in Tantric Buddhism. (See Power Deities Outline Page).

There are Four principal Tantric Buddhist Activities, or functions as described in the Anuttarayoga Tantric literature: 1. Peaceful Activities, 2. Increasing Activities, 3. Powerful Activities, and 4. Wrathful Activities. The four activities are primarily associated with the two highest classifications of Tantra, Anuttarayoga and Yoga.

There are a further ten well known Tantric categories of deities according to function. The ten span all four levels of Tantra but primarily focus on the two lowest classes - Kriya and Charya.

The Kriya and Charya Tantra levels have their own unique system of classifying deities according to hierarchy and function - all though it is not well known outside of scholarly circles. The four activities and the general ten functions are broader and inclusive of all four Tantra levels albeit less precise.

Didactic Art is art created as visual compositions, generally paintings, depicting information and knowledge often in sequential order for the purposes of teaching and instruction. In some cases the composition will have both visual information and textual explanation side by side.

The most well known example of didactic art are the ever present Wheel of Life paintings and murals. Other examples are the Meditation Instructions for Calm Abiding and the Bon Dzogchen Instructions of which there are several known examples (a painting, a mural, and an illuminated manuscript).

Three Main Types:

- Wheel of Life Paintings

- Meditation Instructions

- Bon Dzogchen Instructions

An Outline Page for the life story painting set of Shakyamuni Buddha has been added. Take special notice of the wonderful detail images that accompany four of the five paintings.

This complete set of five paintings depicting the life story of Shakyamuni Buddha is very unique in late Tibetan art because of its selection of narratives stories that the artist has chosen to highlight and represent the Buddha's story.

The selection of individual stories and the over-all composition depicted differs greatly from the standard traditional painted accounts of Shakyamuni Buddha which are primarily focused on the Twelve Deeds of the Buddha with each of the twelve having equal importance and representation in the composition(s).

The central composition of this particular set depicts Shakyamuni Turning the Wheel of Dharma in Sarnath.

The style of painting, drawing and colour follows very closely with other compositions commissioned in association with Palpung Monastery in East Tibet (Dege, Kham province) in the 18th and 19th century.

The details images are masterfully done and require some knowledge of the Buddha's life story to be able to understand and navigate in following the narrative as imagined by the very skilled master artist that created this painting set.

Paintings:

- Turning the Wheel of Dharma (center)

- Prochecy & Birth (right first)

- Youth, Excelling in Sports (left first)

- Austerities, Defeating Mara (right second)

- Fifteen Days of Miracles at Shravasti & Death (left second)

The over-all subject and context of these two bodhisattva paintings are not yet identified which makes it difficult to suggest how many compositions would make up the complete painting set. The central figure in the two compositions is likely to be Avalokiteshvara or Maitreya. It is also possible that the paintings belong to a set depicting the Eight Great Bodhisattvas.

Although strikingly Chinese in style, the two paintings here are very similar in many ways to the Dalai Lama Painting Set dated to the early 1800s.

According to the life story of Shakyamuni Buddha he once stayed at Shravasti in Northern India and over the course of fifteen days performed fifteen miracles or magical displays. This painting is from a set of at least five compositions depicting all fifteen miracles - three miracles per painting. Along the bottom of the composition are three four-line verses identifying the day and the miracle - one for each of the episodes portrayed above. It is possible that this painting belongs to a much larger set of compositions depicting in great detail the life story of Shakyamuni Buddha. No other paintings from this set have so far been identified.

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.

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).