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

The Five Topics on Colour with regard to Iconography are: the [1] Four Ground Colours, the [2] Four Activities, the [3] Five Buddha Families, the [4] Four Directions & Quadrants of a Mandala and the [5] Multiple Faces of Deities & colour schemata. (A work in progress).

Multiple Faces: The majority of Buddhist Tantric deities only have a single face. Even deities that are commonly known for having multiple faces will most often have a simple form of the deity with only a single face, two arms, two legs and the like. However, many of these deities have a number of different forms which include peaceful appearances, wrathful appearances and multiple faces. (This is a work in progress).

Vertical Lineage: The line of lineage teachers is typically central to a Field of Accumulation painting regardless of tradition. In the text commentaries describing the visualizations and practices the teachers are typically placed either on a flat plane surrounding around a central figure or stacked vertically above the head of the central figure - Vajradhara or Shakyamuni Buddha. Regardless of how the lineage is described in texts, it is very rarely seen or depicted the same way in painting. The three images below each depict a very rare artistic rendering of a vertical lineage of teachers, the figures appearing as if stacked one above the head of another.

A page has been created on the HAR website to organize and list all of the HAR blog submissions to Tricycle Magazine in both chronological and subject order. A list of the posts can also be found by doing a search on the Tricycle website.

The HAR website Testimonials Page has been updated with a submission by Robert Mayer, University Research Lecturer in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, The Oriental Institute, Oxford University.

The colour white represents Peaceful Activities, compassion, purification and purity. White is the second most common deity colour in Tantric iconography after blue-black.

In Tantric literature the colour black, or blue-black, along with black coloured deities, represents Wrathful Activities, protection & a fierce resolve of purpose.

Red coloured deities are very common in Tantric iconography. The red colour relates very closely with Powerful Activities from the group of Four Activities. Probably the the most well known of these  deities are Amitabha Buddha, Hayagriva, and Kurukulla.

In Tantric iconography there are only a few multi-coloured deities that are commonly represented and known such as Nagaraja Buddha, Kalachakra and Shabala Garuda. Most multi-coloured deities are retinue figures that stand in the intermediate directions in mandala configurations and take on two colours such as for the North-east direction - green and white.

"Introduction: The Archaic Archaeological Sites of Upper Tibet. The upper portion of the Tibetan Plateau, a land of large lakes, lofty peaks, interminable plains, and deep gorges, stretches north and west of Lhasa for 1500 km. Bounded by high mountain ranges on all sides and averaging 4600 m above sea level, Upper Tibet gave rise to an extraordinary civilization in antiquity. Beginning about 3000 years ago, a chain of mountaintop citadels, temples, and intricate burial complexes appeared in this vast region of some 600,000 square kilometers. These monuments were part and parcel of a unique human legacy, which flourished until the Tibetan imperium and the annexation of Upper... Explore!"

The HAR website Testimonials Page has been updated with a submission by John Vincent Bellezza, Senior Research Fellow, Tibet Center, University of Virginia. John's work can be found in numerous publications, the Tibet Archaeology website and on The Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library.

In Tantric literature the colour green is believed to be the union of all four principal colours (white, yellow, red, blue/black)  and therefore represents all four Tantric activities: peaceful, increasing, powerful and wrathful.

The two most well known deities that are green in colour are Tara and Amoghasiddhi Buddha. The colour green can also represent the Northern quadrant of a mandala.

There are many figures and deities that are yellow. They can generally be divided into two groups, those figures that are predominantly known from their iconography to be yellow in colour and secondly, those figures that have secondary forms, minor forms or manifestations that are yellow.

Shakyamuni Buddha is described as being golden in colour, or yellow like the reflection from a mountain of gold. For that reason Shakyamuni should at least be mentioned in any discussion of yellow deities.

The colour yellow represents the activity and desire for increase according to the system of the Four Activities and four colours. The colour orange is sometimes conflated and exchanged for the colour yellow. The two should be thought of as almost the same depending on the specific context.

"The fully developed production of metal sculptures during the Tibetan Imperial Period (600-842 AD) has been extensively documented by Tibetan historical sources [1]. However, only few Tibetan statues have been attributed to that time and stylistic features of Buddhist art at this stage remain debatable...."


The article follows on from a talk given at the Fifth International Conference on Tibetan Archeology & Arts, Beijing (2012.10.22-10.24). [See asianart.com].

This is a review article by Ulrich von Schroeder reviewing several chapters in the recently published catalogue The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa: the review primarily focuses on Chapter 8 of the volume,The Sculpture of Chöying Dorje, Tenth Karmapa, by Ian Alsop. Because this subject is of some interest to many scholars Asianart.com is also hosting a forum on this subject, Sculpture of the 10th Karmapa. [See asianart.com].

This article was originally published as Chapter 8 of the catalogue published by the Rubin Museum: Karl Debreczeny, (with contributions by Ian A. Alsop, David P. Jackson and Irmgard Mengele) The Black Hat Eccentric : Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa, 2012, Rubin Museum of Art, NY. This online version is the same as that found in the printed version with the exception of a few minor corrections to the text and a few additions to footnotes, as well as addition of detail images. Any updated versions of this article will be clearly so described, and this original version will remain on these pages as is for the record. [See asianart.com].

The Lotus Mandala below was originally created to depict the Hevajra Nine Deity Mandala. The central figure of Hevajra embracing the consort Vajra Nairatmya is missing and presumed lost. The small sculpture below on the right was located and is almost a perfect match for the two missing figures at the center of the mandala. However, although the figures are correct in size for the center, the round base of the Hevajra figure is slightly too large to fit into the recessed circular slot of the mandala.


The very slight difference in size makes it clear that the two pieces, mandala and Hevajra, do not belong together but observing the eight inner figures of the retinue that are attached to the mandala and observing the facial features, body characteristics and attributes, then it is very likely and reasonable to assume that these two objects could have been made in the very same workshop and by the same craftsmen. (See other Lotus Mandalas).

The artistic convention of placing four lineage teachers in each composition - register based - of a multi-painting set is found almost exclusively within the Sakya Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and most popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. Register based compositions almost completely disappear after the 17th century with the introduction of the Floating Figure composition which remains popular right up to the present time. No examples of four figure composition lineage painting sets for the Nyingma, Kagyu or Gelug traditions could be found in the HAR database. Of course it is possible that other and perhaps earlier examples will be discovered that will change our understanding of the subject.

A gallery for Medicine Buddha Retinue Figures, painting, sculpture and textile, has been added to the Masterworks Page.