News

Long-life Deities are a sub-class of deities in Tantric Buddhism. The three principle and well known subjects are Amitayus Buddha, White Tara and Ushnishavijaya. Collectively they are simply known as the 'tse lha nam sum' - Three Long-life Deities. There are a number of other less known deities such as Amaravajradevi, forms of White Chakrasamvara, and all of the specialized forms of the important cycles of Mahakala such as Panjaranata, Chaturmukha, Shadbhuja, and others too numerous and specialized to discuss here. Many of the more specialized forms do not have any painted images or sculptural representations.  

"Not All Wrathful Deities are Protectors, Not All Protectors are Wrathful Deities."

To unravel the statement above and to approach some sense of the meaning then there needs to be an understanding of Iconography. In Himalayan and Tibetan style art the study of Tantric Buddhist Iconography involves the combination of six subjects:

1. The Traditional Tantric Buddhist Hierarchy of Figurative Subjects.

2. The Manner of Depicting the Classes of Figures of the Hierarchy.

3. The Three Traditional Descriptive Categories.

4. The Four Tantric Buddhist Activities.

5. The Traditional Categories of Deities According to Function.

6. The Four Classes of Buddhist Tantra.

Some of these subjects have already been partially explored while others have only been hinted at. Over the next few weeks each of the six topics will be dealt with more fully along with lists, definitions and examples for each.

In Tibetan paintings Brahmarupa Mahakala, depicted as a central or secondary figure, has quite often been confused for an Indian teacher or mahasiddha, and actually, this has been done on purpose. The appearance of Brahmarupa as commonly found in Tibetan art is merely a place card holder for the Mahakala known as 'four faced' - Chaturmukha - associated with the Guhyasamaja Tantra.

In the Sakya Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism it was traditionally not permitted to show publicly the image of Chaturmukha to anyone that had not received the initiation into the secret practices and rituals. The form of Brahmarupa was used as an image that could appear on publicly accessible paintings without breaking any of the strict restrictions. This strict practice is still current within the Sakya Tradition today. However, the Gelug Tradition was not as strict and over the course of time many paintings depicting  Chaturmukha were created.

Paintings of both the Brahmarupa and Chaturmukha depictions have now made their way into museum and private collections in Asia, Europe and North America. So, for the purposes of correctly identifying these subjects this topic has been discussed and the Brahmarupa Outline Page created.

Clearing Up Confusions: Further clarification regarding the figures in Himalayan & Tibetan Art associated with death & the figures that use death as a metaphor: Yama, Yamantaka, Yamari, Bhairava and Vajrabhairava.

The specialty glossary of Caution Words & Sensitive Subjects has been updated and additional illustrations have been added. Further updates are planned for the glossary with longer explanations for the more complicated and confused subjects such as Yama, Yamantaka and Vajrabhairava amongst others.

Historical figures such as Padmasambhava, Karma Pakshi, and the 5th and 13th Dalai Lamas are known for their moustache and goatee appearance. Tang Tong Gyalpo, Shabdrung Ngagwang Namgyal, Terdag Lingpa and others are known for wearing a full and flowing beard.

On the 'Men with Beards Page' where an individual is specifically named then the beard is a distinct iconographic feature in their standard iconography. For images of arhats and mahasiddhas then the beard is generally a creation of the artist. Traditionally the Vinaya code of Buddhist Monastics prohibits the wearing of a beard. Monks are required to be clean shaven. However, disheveled with a scruffy but not quite bearded, appearance can also be common for monks, as well as for the Sixteen Arhats and those siddhas that are depicted in  'mahasiddha' appearance. (Mahasiddhas typically have three types of appearance: [1] Lay, [2] Monastic, and [3] Siddha).

Chinese Kings, Brahmins and Indians in general, usually depicted as secondary figures, are often shown with a beard. The Four Guardian Kings are depicted with beards as are many Tibetan worldly gods and worldly protectors. Wrathful male deities, in general, have orange or red facial hair - eyebrows, moustache, beard - flowing upward like flames. Wrathful female deities often have the same facial hair as the males.

More to come about Wrathful Deities, Peaceful Deities, Semi-Peaceful and Semi-Wrathful Deities, Protectors and Categories of Deities........

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892) was one of the most exciting Tibetan Buddhist teachers of the 19th century. He was a prolific writer as well as inspiring others to write. Khyentse Wangpo along with Jamgon Kongtrul, Choggyur Lingpa, Loter Wangpo and others produced 100s of volumes of texts on all subjects related to Buddhism, history, art and Tibetan culture in general.

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo Outline Page

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo Main Page

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo Illustrated Biography

Manjushri is most commonly known as a bodhisattva, principal student and interlocator, of Shakyamuni Buddha as found and described in the Mahayana sutras. However, in Tantric Buddhism, Manjushri is understood to be a completely enlightened Buddha with a wide range of iconographic appearances, both peaceful and wrathful. These various appearances are used as Tantric meditations. This page has been created to exhibit Manjushri's most common Tantric forms found in Himalayan and Tibetan style art.

The Yama Dharmaraja Main Page has been updated.

Yama Dharmaraja, an emanation of Manjushri, is a Tantric Buddhist - wisdom deity - associated specifically with the Vajrabhairava Tantra. His function is that of a protector to aid those practitioners that have taken up the meditational deity practices of Vajrabhairava. The practices of both of these deities are found in all of the Sarma Traditions of Tibetan Buddhism (Sakya, Kagyu, Gelug, etc.), however the Gelugpa School holds Yama Dharmaraja in a special regard as one of their three principal religious protectors (along with the Shadbhuja Mahakala and Vaishravana).

Related Links:

Yama Dharmaraja Outline Page

Yama Dharmaraja Mandala Elements

Yama Dharmaraja Symbol Mandala

A page has been created to display the various images of Yama that are found in Himalayan and Tibetan style art. They are a selection of different artist depictions of Yama, the 'judge of beings', from the Hell Realm depictions found in the Buddhist Wheel of Life paintings. Yama is understood to be a living being, actually the King of the Preta (ghost) realm, who functions as the judge of beings entering hell. The reason why he is catagorized as a ghost is because no being can actually exist in hell unless they have been born there due to bad actions committed in previous lives (karma). In various versions of Hinduism Yama is categorized as a god and in Indian literature Yama and Yami, a brother and sister, are associated with hell. The Wheel of Life and these depictions of Yama are based on Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism and this particular Buddhist understanding of the person of Yama and the hell realm is based on the Abhidharmakosha writings of Vasubhandu.

Description based on art depictions:
1. Name: Yama, King of the Law (of Karma)
2. Status: King of the Preta Realm
3. Life Status: living being of the Preta Realm
4. Function: Judge of beings entering the Hell Realm
5. Appearance: wrathful (raksha-like)
6. Colour: blue or dark red
7. Hand Attributes: butcher's stick & mirror
8. Attendants: (two) Deer-face & Raksha-faced figures

In Buddhist Tantric systems the popular Hindu divinities are quite often employed as minor worldly 'gods' filling the ranks of the outer retinue of many complex Buddhist Meditational Deities and their mandalas. Also, in a number of the Buddhist mandalas of wrathful deities such as Hevajra and Chakrasamvara the eight Hindu gods are placed in the eight surrounding cemeteries. Yama, as the Hindu god of hell is included in this group of eight.

Also included on the Yama page are three Wheel of Life paintings that depict 'Death' - the terrifying personification of death (samsara, cyclic existence) who holds the Wheel of Life between the two hands, held up to the mouth, about to be swallowed. In these paintings the figure of 'Death' is depicted without any wrathful ornaments as is proper according to orthodox iconography. Painters will often decorate the personification of Samsara in Wheel of Life paintings with the same ornaments as a Buddhist wrathful deity, such as the crown of five skulls, ribbons, bracelets and anklets, etc. However, this figure holding the Wheel of Life is merely a personification of death, impermanence, and the misery of cyclic existence. This wrathful angry figure is not conceived of as being a living entity like Yama in the Hell realm, or a Hindu god, or a deity of any type.

Images & Topics Relating to Hell:

Hell Main Page

Hell Outline Page

Wheel of Life Main Page

Wheel of Life Outline Page

Yama Main Page

What museum collections are upcoming on the HAR website? Well, there isn't a straight forward answer to this question because the HAR website very rarely has the complete Himalayan and Tibetan art collection of any museum. Images are being added to the existing Museums on the website all the time as the images become available.  Many museums just simply don't have everything photographed or don't want to show images of what they consider to be poor quality art in their collections. The better the museum the less willing to share everything - especially if it is a fine art museum.

The HAR Team has provided a Museums Progress Outline Page listing the museums that are currently being worked on as of February 2010. Some of the museums are already represented on HAR and others are new. The museums already represented have new images waiting to be added to their online HAR galleries and the images from new museums are being catalogued for inclusion on HAR for the first time (meaning catalogued by the HAR Team).

Private collections are not represented on this Museums Progress Outline Page although the private collections make up for a large percentage of the images in the database. A separate 'progress page' will be created for private collections as well as collections of mural images from Tibet and Nepal. Currently there is a backlog of approximately 10,000 images, much of it art in situ, to go up on the HAR website.

The Yutog Nyingtig, or Heart Essence of Yutog, is named after Yutog Yontan Gonpo the famous Tibetan Doctor of the 8-9th century Tibet. The art relating to this subject are images of (1) Yutog Yontan Gonpo, images of the meditational deity and retinue (2) Hayagriva, and images of the special protector of the teachings (3) Guhyanata Mahakala and his eight deity retinue. Partial sets of paintings, sculpture and initiation cards are represented in the HAR database.

Curved Knife, or Hooked Knife (Sanskrit: kartari. Tibetan: tri gug): a knife with a very curved blade and a hook at one end, intended for skinning or flaying skin, commonly depicted in the hands of wrathful and semi-wrathful deities of Tantric Indian religious traditions. In Tantric Buddhism the knife is immediately recognizable because it has a half vajra handle (as opposed to the entire vajra).

The vajra is the principal symbol for Tantric Buddhism. As a physical object it is a small scepter that almost always accompanies a vajra handled bell. The Primordial Buddha Vajradhara holds a vajra in his right hand and a vajra handled bell in the left and folds the arms across the heart in an embracing gesture. Many Tantric deities such as Chakrasamvara and others also hold a vajra and bell in their first pair of hands. As the vajra and bell are paired as symbolic hand attributes for many peaceful deities so likewise the curved knife and skullcup are also paired for semi-wrathful and wrathful deities.

In the past, Western scholars not understanding the function of this knife referred to it as a 'chopper'. It more accurately should be called a curved knife, hooked knife or a flaying knife. In Tibetan literature the curved blade is described figuratively for use in skinning demon, human and animal skins/hides and then the hook is used for picking up chunks of cut flesh. The term 'chopper' first used by early Western scholars of Anthropology is quite inaccurate in the present study of Himalayan Style Art and Himalayan and Tibetan Religious Studies as no actual chopping is described in the literature or depicted in the art. Thankfully this term is now rarely used by modern scholars.

Peaceful deities are almost never depicted holding wrathful objects such as the curved knife. The most common deities to hold the curved knife are the Mahakala Class of Wisdom Protectors. Typically in their first pair of hands they hold a curved knife in the right and a skullcup in the left. Semi-wrathful goddesses and Dakinis such as Vajra Nairatmya and almost the entire Vajrayogini Class of Deities hold a curved knife and skullcup.

The glossary page Painting Sets Index/Glossary has been updated with the names and links for the painting sets belonging to the Bon Religion which were inadvertantly left off of the original list.

Sets of Paintings account for at least half or more of all Himalayan and Tibetan painted compositions making sets a unique feature of Himalayan Style 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, historical, etc.).

This incredibly rare and beautifully executed Seven Painting Set depicts the previous incarnations of Dalai Lamas along with the post 5th Dalai Lama incarnations up to and including the 9th Dalai Lama. The central, or first painting, depicts Ngagwang Lobzang Gyatso (1617-1682), the 5th Dalai Lama, with three paintings placed at either side. It is most probable, based on the last Dalai Lama depicted, that the paintings were done between 1810 and 1823 prior to the official selection and enthronement of the 10th Dalai Lama.

Panjaranata Mahakala is the protector for the Shri Hevajra cycle of Tantras. The iconography and rituals are found in the 18th chapter of the Vajra Panjara Tantra (canopy, or pavilion), a Sanskrit language text from India, and an exclusive 'explanatory tantra' to the Hevajra Tantra itself. It is from the name of this tantra that this specific form of Mahakala is known. 'Vajra Panjara' means the vajra enclosure, egg shaped, created from vajra scepters large and small - all sizes, completely surrounding a Tantric Buddhist mandala. The name of the Tantra is Vajra Panjara and the name of the form of Mahakala taught in this Tantra is also Vajra Panjara. The full name for the protector is Vajra Panjara Nata Mahakala.

Western scholars, such as Laurence Austine Waddell and Albert Grunwedel, in the 19th and early 20th century believed that the meaning of the name was 'tent' and that this Mahakala was a special protector of the Tibetan and Mongolian nomads who lived in tents. They even went so far as to say that the wooden staff held across the forearms of Panjarnata was a tent pole. The confusion for Western scholars arises from the fact that the early Tibetans translated the Sanskrit word 'panjara' with the Tibetan word 'gur'. The word 'gur' in Tibetan can mean tent, canopy, enclosure, dome, etc. This academically erroneous belief that Mahakala was 'of the tent'  was however supported by Mongolian folk belief where they believed that Panjara Mahakala, originally introduced to Mongolia by Chogyal Pagpa in the 13th century, was indeed special for them based on the Chogyal Pagpa and Kublai Khan relationship. Panjara Mahakala was also popular for the Mongolian nobility and used as a war standard during the time of Kublai Khan.

The 'Vajra Pavilion' when represented in mandala paintings or for three-dimensional mandalas is known as the 'Vajra Circle' (Sanskrit: vajravali): inside of the outer ring of a two-dimensional mandala, painting or textile, is a circle of fire and then a vajra circle. This vajra circle is often difficult to see and easy to dismiss as simply decorative. The circle is a series of gold or yellow vajras, painted against a dark blue or black background, lined up end to end and circling around the entire mandala, deity and palace. The vajra circle is not envisioned as flat or horizontal like the lotus circle. The vajras are seen as a three dimensional pavilion, without doors or windows, completely enclosing the mandala. It is made entirely of vajras, small and large with all of the openings filled with ever smaller vajras. It is a three-dimensional structure and impenetrable. Envisioned as a three-dimensional object it is called the Vajra Pavilion and according to function it is called the Outer Protection Chakra.

Translating the Sanskrit word 'Panjara' as 'tent' is neither descriptive for Panjarnata Mahakala, accurate of the intended meaning, nor helpful in any way to understand this very important subject well represented in major art collections around the world. For more on this subject see the publication Demonic Divine by Rob Linrothe and Jeff Watt, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2004.

Shri Shmashana Adhipati, Glorious Supreme Lords of the Charnal Ground (also known by another Sanskrit name - Chitipati - a name popularized in Mongolia but virtually unknown in Tibet) arises from the Secret Essence Wheel Tantra and is associated with the collection of Chakrasamvara Tantras (Anuttarayoga). Primarily employed as a wealth practice for Chakrasamvara practitioners, with emphasis on protecting from thieves, Shmashana Adhipati, Father and Mother, also serve as the special protector for the Vajrayogini Naro Khechari practice of the Indian mahasiddha Naropa as transmitted through the Nepalese Pamting brothers and then to the Sakya Tradition. Shri Shmashana Adhipati is now common, to a greater or lesser extent, in all the New (Sarma) Schools of Himalayan and Tibetan influenced Buddhism.

Shri Shmashana Adhipati is regarded as an emanation of Chakrasamvara and unrelated to the dancing skeleton figures found in Tibetan Cham dances. The Cham dance skeletons are understood as worldly spirits acting as jokers or servants for minor worldly gods such as Yama. Although the Sakya Tradition in the 16th century incorporated the
deity Shamashana Adhipati into the Vajrakila dances of the Khon-lug
Tradition, the deity however remains unrelated to the various skeleton
figures depicted in other Tibetan Cham dance. Western scholars of the
20th century have continually and mistakenly conflated the deity
Shmashana Adhipati with the minor skeleton dance figures found in the
Cham dances and associated with the worldly god Yama.

There is only one original form of the deity as described in the Tantra and passed down through the Sakya Tradition beginning with Sachen Kunga Nyingpo. Many great scholars wrote ritual texts related to the practice of Shmashana Adhipati but not until Zhuchen Tsultrim Rinchen was there a lenthy commentary and explicit retreat instructions. The Gelug Tradition, at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, adopted the practice and slightly modified the hand attributes for the female deity by adding the stalk of grain in the right hand and a wealth vase in the left rather than the bone stick and skullcup. There have been a few Nyingma 'Revealed Treasure' versions of the dancing skeleton figures, again with some modifications to the hand attributes. There will likely be other forms of the deity that exist as textual traditions having their origins in 'pure visions' or other types of Tibetan revelatory creation, but as yet they have not appeared in known paintings or sculpture.

For more information on this subject see the publication Demonic Divine by Rob Linrothe and Jeff Watt, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2004.

The 'Path Together with the Result' (Sanskrit: Margapala. Tibetan: lam dre bu tang che pa), is considered to be one of the most important Tantric Buddhist teachings to have entered Tibet. It is believed to have originated with the Indian teacher Virupa who was regarded as a great adept (mahasiddha). The images in Margapala Set #4 represent an incomplete set of paintings depicting the lineage of teachers starting with the Primordial Buddha Vajradhara, to the deity Vajra Nairatmya, followed by the Indian teachers Virupa, Kanha, Damarupa, Avadhutipa, and Gayadhara, down to the Tibetan teachers beginning with Drogmi Lotsawa. There were likely six or seven more paintings in the cpmplete set following after the painting depicting Sonam Tsemo and Dragpa Gyaltsen. The current whereabouts of the missing paintings is not known and it is quite possible that they no longer exist.

The Six Teachers of Discipline (Dulwa Shen Drug) are the special forms of Tonpa Shenrab, founder of the Bon Religion (Outline Page),  that lead beings out of the six realms of existence: God, Demi-god, Human, Animal, Ghost and Hell realm. Depictions of the Six Teachers are found as individual compositions created as a set of six paintings, or as murals on temple walls, or as accompanying  figures in large paintings that depict the pantheon of the most important and commonly represented deities of the Bon Religion. Depictions of a Bon version of the Wheel of Life/Existence appears to be a recent borrowing from the Buddhist models of the six realm version. The earliest known painting of the Wheel of Life (Samsara Chakra) is found in the Ajanta Caves in India.