News

A Sitatapatra Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

The female deity Sitatapatra, according to the Sarma Schools (New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism - Sakya, Kagyu, Jonang, Gelug, etc.), belongs to the Kriya Classification of Tantra. From the variety of forms in which she appears, one faced, three faced, five faced and thousand faced, the one thousand faced Sitatapatra is the most popular and the form most commonly depicted in artistic representation.

The seven paintings of the Dalai Lama Incarnation Lineage set by the artist Kazi Lhazo (circa 1800) have been annotated with the names of each of the primary and secondary figures.

The thirteen paintings of the Dalai Lama Incarnation Lineage set have been annotated with the names of each of the primary and secondary figures. This complete set of compositions belongs to the collection of Tibet House, New Delhi, India.

The five paintings from this Bhutanese Drugpa Kagyu Sadhanamala Set have been annotated with the names of each of the figures.

The nine paintings from this Twenty-one Tara set have been annotated with the name of the specific Tara, placement in the over all composition of twenty-one, along with the names of the additional teacher, meditational deity and protector.

A three composition painting set depicting the Panchen Lama Incarnation Lineage: currently only a single composition, #2 (right 1), is known to exist in the collection of the Newark Museum. The three paintings are based on the iconography and style of the Nartang block print thirteen painting set. (See the Nartang Panchen iconographhy page).

The Karma Pakshi Main Page has been updated. Karma Pakshi is well known for being the only Karmapa to have a goatee depicted in art. He has three basic iconographic appearances: [1] Dharma teaching gesture, [2] two hands across the knees, and [3] the right hand holding a vajra and the left a peg (kila).

The Taglung Tangpa Chenpo page has been updated. Tashi Pel (1142-1210) was the founder of Taglung Monastery (1180) in central Tibet, north of Lhasa, the head monastery for the Taglungpa sub-lineage of the Marpa/Dagpo Kagyu School.

A Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Mandala Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

The Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Tantra Main Page has been updated with more images and links. There are twelve main mandalas associated with this visually complex Tantra.

The Amitabha/Amitayus Buddha Main Page has been updated. It certainly is the most difficult of the buddha pages to maintain because of the one buddha having two different names and two different appearances that sometimes but not always go with the two meanings of the two different names.

In the Mahayana Tradition of Buddhism a buddha is described as having three bodies: a form body (nirmanakaya), an apparitional body (sambhogakaya) and an ultimate truth body (dharmakaya). Amitabha and Amitayus are the same entity/person, the first is described as the form body (nirmanakaya) and the second the apparitional body (sambhogakaya). The ultimate truth body (dharmakaya) is without visual representation.

A Vairochana Buddha Sculpture Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

A Vairochana Buddha Paintings Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

Vairochana Buddha can best be understood in three different ways: [1] as the principal character in a number of Buddhist sutras, [2] as a meditational deity used in ritual practices, [3] as a familiar image depicted in early painting and sculpture. Vairochana is also one of the pre-eminent Buddhas in Tantric Buddhism along with Akshobhya and Amitabha. In some Sutra and Tantra explanations Vairochana is seen as a universal form of Shakyamuni Buddha and therefore especially important in the early development and history of Tantric Buddhism.

A Cityscape Selection has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

The Charya Tantra Classification although predominantly following the Kriya system of Three Buddha Families, Tatagata, Padma and Vajra, has very few actual texts and very few deities and mandalas. Not all of the Tibetan Traditions agree on the text titles found under the Charya classification. The Sakya Tradition includes The Manjushri Mulakalpa and Siddhaikavira Tantras as Charya. Most other schools classify those texts as Kriya Tantra.

Amoghasiddhi Buddha has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

Amoghasiddhi Buddha is primarily associated with Vajrayana Buddhism and originates in the Tantric Literature of the Yoga and Anuttarayoga Tantra classes. The sculptural images generally fall into two groups, either as Buddhas with monastic robes and without ornaments known as nirmanakaya appearance or Buddhas in Bodhisattva Appearance with crowns and ornaments and known as sambhogakaya appearance.

The majority or paintings depicting Amoghasiddhi are predominantly understood within the context of dozens or hundreds of surrounding figures. These compositions belong to painting sets of five or more compositions that depict all of the deities described in the mandalas of the Vairochana, Tattvasamgraha or Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Tantras of the Charya and Yoga classifications of Tantric literature.

"Arising in the northern direction is Amoghasiddhi on a garuda, lotus and sun throne; with a body green in colour the right hand in the gesture of giving refuge." (Dragpa Gyaltsen, 1147-1216).

Ratnasambhava Buddha has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.