Himalayan Art Resources

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Realm of the Medicine Buddha - Added

The Realm of the Medicine Buddha depicted as the first painting of the Blue Beryl set of compositions has been added as a separate gallery of images on the HAR website.


The scene has the Medicine Buddha at the center of a palace in the middle of a medicinal plant garden. Immediately surrounding the Buddha are Indian gods, rishis and Buddhist monks, including Arya Nagarjuna. These various figures are the legendary and human characters involved with the development and propagation of Indian Aurveda medicine in the 1st millennium of the common era. In the 2nd millennium this transformed again into Tibetan medicine.

Unlocking the Meaning of the Blue Beryl Paintings - Added

The Blue Beryl is a 17th century commentary to he 11th century Four Medical Tantras text. The Blue Beryl paintings are a set of 79 educational explanatory compositions created and commissioned by the 3rd Desi Sanggye Gyatso (1653-1705), regent to the 5th Dalai Lama. The first fifteen of the Blue Beryl paintings have a register at the top which presents the four topics of [1] Medicine Buddha, [2] Four Tantras Lineage, [3] Yutog Nyingtig Lineage and the [4] Deities and Protectors of the Yutog Nyingtig. The image here is created by layering the strips of register found at the top of the first fifteen compositions into a single image. The strips have been combined to make it easier to follow the sequence and read the name inscriptions. (Only the first fifteen compositions of the set have a top register).

Gelug Protectors Painting Set - Added

A Gelug Protector Painting Set with seven compositions in total. The primary donor for the set was Purbu Chog. An inscription on the back of the Shri Devi painting gives the names of four donors: Purbu Chog Ngagwang Champa (1682-1762), Lobzang Dargye the 49th Ganden Tripa, Champa Yeshe and Lobzang Trinle (1697-1761). Only three paintings from the set are currently known however the identity of the missing paintings and additional donors are known from the writings of Purbu Chog.