Himalayan Art Resources

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New Index & Glossary: Painting Sets

Painting Sets IndexPainting Sets Index/Glossary Page. Also located at the top of the main Glossary Page.


Painting sets account for at least half or more of all Himalayan and Tibetan painted compositions making sets a unique feature of Himalayan Art. Sets can be divided between four major subject types: [1] Life Story, [2] Teaching Lineages, [3] Incarnation Lineages, and [4] Miscellaneous Subjects. This last group can be divided into three subsets: [4a] Mytho-historical Teachers, [4b] Deity Sets and [4c] Miscellaneous Subjects (medical sets, astrology, history, etc.).


[1] The most commonplace and famous of the sets of paintings are Shakyamuni Buddhas & the Sixteen Great Arhats, followed by the Buddha's Life-story, Previous Life-stories (jataka) and Teaching Stories (avadana). The life-story of Padmasambhava condensed into the Eight Forms, along with the Milarepa and Tsongkapa life stories are also quite common.


[2] The Teaching Lineage painting sets of the Sakya Lamdre (Margapala) and the Karma Kagyu Mahamudra Lineages (sertreng) are the most common.


[3] For the Incarnation Lineage painting sets the Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama and Jonang Taranata are the most common.


[4] Miscellaneous Subjects include Shakyamuni Buddha & Sixteen Great Arhats, Six Ornaments & Two Excellent Ones, Eighty-four Mahasiddhas, Twenty-one Taras, Vajravali Deity set, Sarvadurgati Parishodhana, Four Transcendent Lords, Twelve Ritual Deities, etc.