The Buddhist religious traditions discussed here are currently extant in the 21st century. The purpose of this page is to link and associate the relationships between the various schools and arrange them into their natural groupings.
This is a work in progress, an exercise in chronologically listing paintings according to inscription based dating. This first gallery contains a selection of Sakya paintings that can generally be dated to within two and ten years of manufacture.
A main page has been added for the teacher Dagchen Tutob Wangchug (1588-1637).
The Dzongpa Tradition Main Page has been updated with additional images and links.
The Sakya Tridzin Wangdu Nyingpo Page has been updated.
Each of the goddess figures has one face and four arms. One pair of hands are folded in the gesture of meditation in the lap. Who are these four-armed goddesses?
The Pancha Raksha are a set of five 'Dharani' goddesses found in Buddhist Tantric literature. There are many different iconographic variations of their forms. Individually they can be very difficult to identify precisely.
A number of Densatil sculpture have unique square thrones beneath the double or single lotus base.
A number of Densatil sculpture have unique round thrones beneath the double or single lotus base.
The Painting Annotation Main Page has been updated with additional images.
A gallery has been created for the Rubin Museum of Art collection of Densatil Sculpture.
The Sculpture Annotation Main Page has been updated with double the number of previous images.
A Sage of Long Life Page has been added to the Masterworks Main Page.
The Durga Masterworks Page has been updated with additional images.
The Warrior Goddess is the fearsome - demon destroying - form of the Daughter of the Himalayas, Parvati. Although she has many different origin myths associating her with different gods such as Brahma, Vishnu and Krishna, her relationship with Shiva and Parvati is popular in the Himalayan regions. According to chapter 38 of the Garuda Purana (10th-12th c.) Durga can have twenty-eight, eighteen, twelve, eight or four arms. Two lists of eighteen hand attributes are named in chapter 38 but neither of these lists accurately describe the many eighteen armed Nepalese sculpture of Durga. Other forms of Durga with ten and six arms are also commonly found.
The Densatil Sculpture Page has been updated with additional images and links.
A Sculpture Sets Main Page has been added with a short list of easily recognized sculpture sets. More sets will be added as they are identified.
The Four Guardian Kings, as a sculpture or painting set, would belong to the larger commission of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Sixteen Arhats or an even larger set such as the Fifty-one Deity Mandala of Medicine Buddha. It is unlikely that the Four Kings would ever be created by themselves, alone, without a greater context.
The three images in this gallery belong to a Chakrasamvara Lineage. It is believed that most of the sculpture still resides at Ngor Monastery with a few of the pieces missing.
A set of early Kagyu teachers, Marpa and Milarepa, in red sandalwood have been reunited. It is not known how many pieces are in the complete set.
These two sculpture of Vajradhara and Nairatmya most likely belong to a much larger set of images depicting the Sakya Lamdre (margapala) Lineage of teachers.
