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Occupying a central role in Vajrayana Buddhism, Akshobhya, by some accounts, is Lord of the 2nd of the Five Buddha Families of tantra and found throughout all 4 tantra classifications most notably in the anuttarayoga class. Akshobhya is also mentioned in several Mahayana sutras, the Vimalakirti Nirdesa being the most famous. It was in Abhirati, the pureland of Akshobhya, attainable only by 8th level bodhisattvas, where the famous Tibetan yogi Milarepa and the scholar Sakya Pandita are said to have obtained complete buddhahood.

The Four-armed Lokeshvara (Chaturbhuja) is certainly the most popular and most common form of Avalokiteshvara found in art. As a sub-group amongst the different forms there is also the additional context of the Potalaka Pureland with Lokeshvara seated at the center of the composition.

Potalaka is an island believed to be located somewhere in the Indian ocean off the coast of Western India. In China, Potalaka is found as Puto Island just two hours south of Shanghai. Puto Island was visited in the past by Tibetan teachers such as Karma Pakshi and Zangpo Pal as early as the Yuan period.

The Nartang Monastery Printing House blockprint composition of the Panchen Lama incarnation line was created in the 18th century with 13 prints including the 3rd Panchen Lama in total. It was likely commissioned originally as a painting set in the late 17th or early 18th century first and then adapted to a wood block format. Since the 18th century there have been dozens, if not scores, or hundreds of sets, either directly produced from the wood block prints or painting sets patterned after the block prints. Following the popularity of the prints, in the early 20th century the set was re-produced in Hangzhou, China, as a woven textile set of compositions, easily produced and cheaply sold.

The Hayagriva Main Page has been updated with additional images and content.

The yantra diagrams of Hayagriva are generally used for over coming specific obstacles or for protection. The first of the two principal styles of Hayagriva yantra are [1] a circular chart with inscriptions super imposed over the central torso of an image of the deity. The second [2] style is of a depiction of the head and upper body of the deity and the lower body in the shape of a 'kila' peg. The lower 'kila' body contains specified written mantra inscriptions. These are often supplemented with special requests.

Yantras such as these, drawn or printed on paper, can often be found placed on the outside of a dwelling either above or to the side of a main entrance door. The yantra can be commissioned as a painting on cloth, drawn by hand, or reproduced from a wood block carving.

The wrathful protector Drashi Lhamo is regarded as a form of Shri Devi. She resides in the Drashi Gon temple in Lhasa, Tibet. The temple was originally constructed at the request of the Tibetan ruler Pholane in the mid to late 18th century and is located approximately half way between the Barkor of central Lhasa and the sprawling Sera Monastery to the north-east. The temple was also in close proximity to the Chinese embassy of the time. (Read more).

A Prayer beads (mala) are a very personal religious article. They can be made of a varying number of beads and of different substances depending on the intended use. Strictly speaking the materials that the beads are made from and the specific number of beads are determined according to the intended type of religious practice to be performed along with the guidelines of the Four Activities. Several Indian Sanskrit texts explain the general creation and uses of the mala such as the Vajra Garbha Lamkara, Samputa and Dakarnava Tantras.

A Shri Devi Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page. The selection includes the early and main forms of Shri Devi such as Dudsolma and Dorje Rabtenma. For Shri Devi Magzor Gyalmo there is a separate masterworks page.

A Tsang Nyon Heruka Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

A Mahasiddha Naropa Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

A Mahasiddha Avadhutipa Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

Kshitigarbha, Bodhisattva - Essence of the Earth - is one of the eight principal Mahayana students, or 'heart sons,' of Buddha Shakyamuni.

The 'Eight Heart Sons,' including such notables as Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara, figure prominently in the various Mahayana Sutras of Northern Buddhism. Kshitigarbha is particularly associated with bringing help and comfort to those in the underworld realm of hell beings.

Originating with the Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva Purvapranidhana Sutra, Kshitigarbha has remained primarily a character of the Mahayana Sutras. There are only a few Tantric texts and rituals that include him and because of that he does not have a fixed and readily identifiable iconographic appearance like Lokeshvara or Manjushri.

A landscape style horizontal composition is not so common for 'tangkas' in Himalayan style art. The idea and layout for these compositions very much follow a mural style where most temple walls are longer in the horizontal than the vertical elevation. Unique to the landscape style, there are often three figures or deities, side by side, portrayed as the central theme.

Generally the deities Vajradhara and Vajrasattva only have the standard two eyes. However, there are some examples of Vajradhara with three eyes. When the deity appears in a painting it is in most cases easy to identify and distinguish between Vajradhara and Vajrasattva by colour and context. With sculpture it is much more difficult since both deities can have the same iconographic form.

A selection of Vajravidarana works of art, painting and sculpture, has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.

The Vajravidarana Main Page has been updated.

Vajravidarana is a male meditational deity. He can appear as white and peaceful, green and semi-peaceful/semi-wrathful, or blue and wrathful. Four different mandala forms are found in the Kriya classification of Tantra and one wrathful form with a seventy-five deity mandala in the anuttarayoga classification of Tantra. There are also  several traditions of Vajravidarana as a solitary figure without any retinue.

Although a meditational deity, Vajravidarana is very much a deity of purification and belongs to the group known as the Five Cleansing Deities. The form with a Seventy-five Deity Mandala is also included as an important branch initiation and practice in the Margapala (Lamdre) teaching cycle of the Sakya Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Three Lords of the World Page, with Manjushri, Lokeshvara and Vajrapani, has been updated with additional images and context.

Vajrapani and the Tantric meditational deity Vajrasattva can easily be confused because they can have the same identical appearance. The only possible way to distinguish between the two is through inscriptions written on the base of a sculpture, or if a painted composition, then through a study of the iconographic context and related deities in a composition, along with any inscriptions. Vajrapani is by far the earlier figure in Buddhist narrative and Vajrasattva only arises from the later Tantra literature as a meditational deity. It is very likely that Vajrasattva is modeled on the form and some of the function that was originated in the character of Vajrapani.

The sculptural examples in this gallery are believed by the museums and private collections in which they reside, based on iconography, to be the female Buddha Tara. The two most common forms of Tara are the Green and the White followed by the Eight Fears and Twenty-one Taras. Those forms are the general models used for identifying female sculptural figures as Tara. What is unusual about the forms in this gallery are their non-standard hand gestures or leg postures which do not conform to the well known iconography of the Green or White Tara. The examples are also not likely to be part of a larger set such as the Eight or Twenty-one. Is it even possible to positively identify each example as a form of Tara?

The Vajradhara Main Page has been updated with additional images and links.