News

A Marpa Chokyi Lodro Gallery has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

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

A Twelve Yaksha Generals Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page. The Twelve Generals make up part of the Fifty-one Deity Mandala of Medicine Buddha. Each of the generals holds a unique attribute in their right hand and a mongoose in the left hand. Because of the general look, expression and attire which is known as King Appearance in Himalayan Style Art it is very common for the individual figures of the Generals to be miss-identified as either Vaishravana, Jambhala or the very elusive Kubera.

The so called Crowned Buddha has been a source of much discussion in the academic art world for decades. Generally the crowned Buddha is believed to be a depiction of Shakyamuni Buddha with the added attribute of a crown such as a king would wear. The notable difference between Shakyammuni Buddha wearing a crown and the Five Symbolic Buddhas is that they, unlike the Buddha, also wear fine heavenly clothing along with rich adornments such as earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Shakyamuni still maintains his nirmanakaya - monastic - appearance plus the added crown. The Five Symbolic Buddhas appear in sambhogakaya form with the full dress of a bodhisattva or heavenly being.

Shakyamuni Buddha & the Vajra Seat refers to the the vajra scepter located on the seat in front of the Buddha. It is always horizontal rather than upright and appears as if partially sunk into the seat. The scepter refers to the time and geographic location where the Buddha reached enlightenment at Bodhgaya (Vajrasana), India. He was also seated in vajrasana posture with the right leg folded over the left and was mentally focussed on the vajra samadhi meditation.

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.