News

The Svastika - Yungdrung Page has been updated.

The gallery of the Eye Clearing Avalokiteshvara has been updated.

A selection of vajra scepters from various sets of initiation cards (tsakalai). Some such as the yellow and gold are considered peaceful and some like the black or with flames are considered wrathful. There are also double vajras (vishvavajra) and examples paired with bells and other ritual instruments.

A gallery of early paintings of Buddhist teachers spanning the 11th to 14th centuries. In later paintings primarily after the 14th century when large central figures are facing to the right or left it most often implies that the painting belongs to a set of compositions depicting a series of lineage teachers. In those cases the entire set of compositions is intended to be displayed together as a unit - a single work of art made up of many individual compositions.

The images in this gallery appear to be essentially single compositions intended to stand alone. In the Taglung style paintings of Kagyu themes for example the secondary figures at the top are uniformly the early Dagpo Kagyu Lineage. The secondary figures at the sides and bottom register are also fairly uniform and generally include the following figures: miscellaneous lineage teachers, Eight Mahasiddhas, Four Guardian Kings, Chakrasamvara, Vajrayogini, Hayagriva, Aparajita, Jambhala, Mahakala and Shri Devi Dorje Rabtenma.

A gallery of early painted depictions of Padmasambhava spanning the 13th to 16th centuries. Only two of the early works depict Padmasambhava as the central figure. The remaining images present him as a minor figure or within the lineage teachers in the uppermost register of the composition. The vast majority of artworks depicting Padmasambhava are post 17th century.

A page for the 'Revealed Treasure' deity Black Hayagriva Riding a Tiger has been added. More images will be included as they are identified.

A main page for Guru Chowang has been added along with a short biography. More images will be included as they are identified.

A page collecting together images of the Revealed Treasure Traditions of Nyangral Nyima Ozer has been added. More images will be included as they are identified. Five of the examples have depictions of Nyangral along with an accompanying Tibetan name inscription.

A main page for Nyangral Nyima Ozer has been added along with a biography from the Treasury of Lives website.

Krishna Yamari has been added to the Masterworks Index Page.

Samantabhadra The Primordial Buddha, representing the Dharmakaya (truth body of enlightenment) according to the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Samantabhadra Buddha and Samantabhadra the Bodhisattva are unrelated and not the same subject or entity. The first is a special buddha unique to the Nyingma Tantric Tradition. The second is a bodhisattva that arises from the Mahayana Sutra literature.

Samantabhadra is a bodhisattva known from the Mahayana Sutras. He is most often depicted in art as a member of the group known as the Eight Great Bodhisattvas which include the famous Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani. Unlike those three figures Samantabhadra never gained the same popularity and was not elevated in the Tantric literature to the level of a meditational deity (ishtadevata). Samantabhadra the bodhisattva is unrelated to Samantabhadra the primordial Buddha of the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

Sculptural images of Milarepa depicted in mountain settings have been added. The examples exhibited are from Mongolia, China and Tibet.

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

A third example of a Bon Refuge Field painting retains a small image of Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen at the center but is asymmetrical compared with the the two main types of Bon Refuge Fields. This example was designed by Lobpon Tenzin Namdak and painted by the artist Lablo Namkha in 1968.

Another type of Bon Refuge Field (Field of Accumulation) places the teacher Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen at the center of the composition. All scroll paintings and murals of Bon Refuge Fields so far identified are creations of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The circular Refuge Field (Field of Accumulation) compositions of the Bon religion that use the deity Shenlha Okar as the central figure are believed to have been designed by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1933) in the early 20th century based on a dream or vision. 

Yantra of People are generally used for various types of protection. The most common yantra is that of Jatson Nyingpo (1585-1656) a famous 'treasure revealer' of the Nyingma Terma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He studied both Nyingma and Sarma traditions and was a prolific writer with over 300 texts to his name.

Yantra have a very wide range of purposes such as healing, matchmaking, acquisition of wealth, protection and the disposal of enemies and obstacles. Yantras of just a few letters and combinations of letters and words are the most difficult type of yantra when attempting to determine the intended meaning. There are Sanskrit and Tibetan language published collections of yantra which explain how to draw them and their intended use, astrologically auspicious day for creation, and so on.

Yantra diagrams are very often in circular shapes, sometimes with a blank space at the center for writing in a personal note or instruction. They can be very simple in design or extremely complex with multiple circles and designs.