Himalayan Art Resources

Subjects: Buddhas (That Do Not Have Buddha Appearance)

Buddhas (That Do Not Have Buddha Appearance) | Buddha Main Page

Subjects, Topics & Types:
- Buddhas That Do Not Have Buddha Appearance Description (below)
- Five Symbolic Buddhas of the Vajrayana Tantra System (when depicted with crowns, jewel ornaments, fine clothes & consort deities. See Tantric Buddhas Outline Page):
---- Vairochana
---- Amitayus
---- Akshobhya
---- Ratnasambhava
---- Amoghasiddi
- Vajradhara
- Vajradharma (including Vira Vajradharma)
- Vajrasattva
- Samantabhadra (Kuntu Zangpo)
- Twelve Dzogchen Buddhas (four of the twelve have Buddha Appearance and Eight do not)
- Confusions
- Others....

The Five Symbolic Buddhas appear sometimes with Buddha Appearance and Sometimes in Peaceful Appearance.

In Tantric Buddhist art there are many deities that are considered buddhas but do not appear in Buddha Appearance, such as Vajradhara, Vajrasattva and all of the major meditational deities (ishtadevata) such as Hevajra, Chakrasamvara and Kalachakra. In Tantra the well known deity subject such as Tara is regarded as a fully enlightened buddha that has chosen to a appear in a peaceful goddess-like form rather than in Buddha Appearance. Buddhas that function as meditational deities can have the appearance of any one of the five types of deities from the list of Eleven Figurative Forms: peaceful, semi-peaceful/semi-wrathful, wrathful, animal-headed, and warrior.

Jeff Watt [updated 4-2017, 7-2018]