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A gallery for Amitabha Buddha has been added to the Masterworks Page.

The Marichi Main Page has been updated with additional images and information.

The Goddess of the Dawn (Tibetan: ozer chen ma. Sanskrit: Marichi) is depicted in many different forms. Sometimes she rides a white horse through the sky, banishing the darkness and driving back the night with the orb of the sun in the outstretched right hand. More commonly, Marichi is yellow or red in colour, with three or more faces and six to twelve arms, seated on a chariot drawn by seven pigs, or horses, removing all obstacles to happiness and well-being. Her mood can be either peaceful or wrathful. The metaphor for spiritual practice and meditation is light, light overcoming darkness.

A gallery for the worldly protector Shangpa Karpo, has been added to the Masterworks Page.

A gallery for the worldly protector Vaishravana, King of the North, has been added to the Masterworks Page.

A gallery for the worldly protector and wealth deity  Vaishravana Riding a Lion has been added to the Masterworks Page.

Dorje Lingpa (1346-1405) life story murals from Buli Monastery, Bhutan.

Also see the Dorje Lingpa Main Page. The images have been added to the Ariana Maki Photographic Archive.

Red Tara, Secret Accomplishment according to the tradition of Dzigar Terton Dragpo Tsal (1740-1798), the 4th Dzigar incarnation [P691].

At the center is Red Tara, peaceful in appearance, with one face and two hands. She holds in the right hand a hook of gold and jewels. In the left hand held at the heart she grasps the stem of a red utpala flower blossoming at the left shoulder. Wearing all of the ornaments and garments of a peaceful deity, she sits in a relaxed posture with the right leg extended forward and the left drawn up.

The paintings in this gallery belong to a Lamdre Lineage set created at Ngor Ewam Monastery in Tsang, Tibet. The Sakya School, of which Ngor is a sub-school, maintains hundreds of lineages of Buddhist teachings that were propagated by Indian scholars and siddhas. Considered the most important of these teachings is the 'Path Together with the Result' (Sanskrit: Margapala. Tibetan: lam dre bu tang che pa). The set presented here probably totals approximately thirty in number. More than twenty paintings are known to survive.

The important iconographic elements of each composition are:

1. Central Figure (and lineage affiliation)

2. Surrounding Lineage

3. Deity/ies in the Bottom Register

4. Miscellaneous ornamentation, throne decoration, minor deities

Each composition depicts a single figure from the lineage of teachers of the Sakya Margapala/lamdre lineage. The set as a whole depicts the entire Lamdre lineage up to the time of its creation - likely in the late 16th century based on the last two teachers often being the 8th abbot of Ngor, Muchen Sanggye Rinchen (1450-1524), followed by the 10th abbot of Ngor, Ngorchen Konchog Lundrub (1497-1557).

Each and every Buddha is said to have their own pureland or sacred geography, as do the Eight Great Bodhisattvas and Tara. A small number of meditational deities also have specific and unique locations associated with that Tantric logic system; examples are Vajrayogini and Kalachakra.

Types of Purelands (& Sacred Geography):

1. Buddhas & Founding Figures (Shakyamuni & Tonpa Shenrab)

2. Bodhisattvas (Eight Great Bodhisattvas & Tara, etc.)

3. Meditational Deities (Kalachakra & Vajrayogini)

4. Padmasambhava (Oddiyana & Copper-coloured Mountain).

Pema Lingpa (1450-1521) was a Treasure Revealer of the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. (See a short biography).

'The Very Condensed Essence' Avalokiteshvara has one face and two hands, red in colour, seated in vajrasana posture. In the right hand he holds to the heart a lotus garland (mala). The left hand is in the lap and holds a nectar vase with a lotus flower above. Seated in the lap is the consort, the great mother, Sangyema, red in colour and holding the same objects as Avalokiteshvara. In the literature describing in full the appearance and surroundings of Avalokiteshvara there are a number of other deities and figures.

This form of Avalokiteshvara is commonly mistaken for the deity Amitayus Buddha.

The Mountain Sanctuary Collection is new to the HAR Website. It is a private collection that contains over 700 paintings and approximately 700 sculpture. Additional images of paintings will be added as they become available. The collection is a treasure house of iconographic forms, portraits, life story narratives, along with peaceful and wrathful deities of all types, comparable to the collections of the Rubin Museum of Art and the Hahn Foundation.

Yellow Jambhala: these four images of the deity are each based on the same original model for depicting the basic form. The third image, HAR 60616, is a variation on the model with the added figure of the consort Vasudhara.

The Mountain Sanctuary Collection is new to the HAR Website. It is a private collection that contains over 700 sculpture and approximately 700 paintings. Additional sculptural images will be added as they become available. The collection has both early and late pieces and is particularly fine in its quality and breadth.

Padmasambhava is commonly seen depicted at the center of a Copper Coloured Mountain painting composition. Although all of the many paintings look generally the same, they are in fact all different and belong to a variety of different Nyingma lineage traditions - along with some Kagyu traditions.

The Namcho Tradition of 'Revealed Treasure' discovered by Mingyur Dorje (1645-1667) presents a variation on the theme of Amitabha in Sukhavati with the addition of a number of Tantric elements which differs from all of the other depictions.

Amitabha depicted in a circular format is the second of the three format composition types. This format appears to have originated in or around Tashi Lhunpo Monastery of Tsang Province, Tibet. The subject of the composition is dominated by a large circular enclosure containing the essential elements of the painting. The large figure of Amitabha Buddha is presented in the middle along with a tree and palace, accompanied by the Eight Great Bodhisattvas.

Amitabha depicted in the Sukhavati Heaven is a common image in Himalayan and Tibetan art. It is an iconic symbol and subject representing Mahayana Buddhism in general. The basic figures, characters and scenes are common for most representations found in the different traditions despite having several composition and artistic styles and types.

There are three main composition types with the first being the [1] square format followed by the [2] circular format and finally the depiction of Sukhavati based on the [3] Namcho 'Revealed Treasure' Tradition of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Who is the God Kubera in Tantric Buddhism and why are so many deities identified as Kubera?

The sculpture on the left is not Kubera - it is Vaishravana Riding a Lion!

Kubera is a name for a God of Wealth in Indian Buddhist literature. He is also closely associated with Vaishravana, the God of the North, who inhabits the Northern slopes of Mount Sumeru in Pali and Sanskrit Mahayana literature.

Unfortunately, almost all figures identified as Kubera in Tibetan and Himalayan art are not accurately identified. The name Kubera has essentially come to be used as a category for a type of deity, a designation for all deities that have a certain appearance but have not necessarily been precisely identified. The problematic way in which the word Kubera is being used in the West actually has a more proper designation and definition in Tibetan Art. That designation is 'King Appearance' which is one of the traditional figurative forms in Tibetan art. It also has a prominent place in the modern system of the Eleven Figurative Forms.

Maitreya is quite often found depicted in a standing posture. He can appear in either Bodhisattva appearance or in Buddha appearance. There are also many regional artistic styles from Kashmir in the West, Ngari to Central Tibet, Nepal or Pala India. Each of these major regions have different artistic expressions and aesthetics. Even the jewelry and slight twist in the body can be different.

Maitreya is still identified by the unique and shared attributes such as the stupa, water flask, wheel and krishnasara deerskin draped across the left shoulder. The deerskin is a shared attribute with Avalokiteshvara.

Maitreya is depicted in a number of standard postures and iconographic forms. On occasion Maitreya is shown in a seated posture with the right leg pendant similar to forms of Avalokiteshvara.

In these representations Maitreya is identified by either the stupa on the crown of the head or on a flower blossom, the water flask, a wheel, or krishnasara deerskin over the left shoulder. He can also be tentatively identified through a process of elimination by noting a lack of attributes associated with Manjushri or Avalokiteshvara. The example above is identified by the stupa on the crown of the head which is unique to Maitreya.