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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.

The Four Transcendent Lords are the most important deities/gods of the Bon Religion. Each of the Four Lords are typically depicted in a single composition with each surrounded by two hundred and fifty attendant deities. These attendant figures total one thousand in number and are called the 'One Thousand Enlightened Ones' of the Bon Religion. The first set of two hundred and fifty figures surrounding Satrig Ersang are female and the other three Lords are surrounded by male attendant figures.

The subject of the Four Transcendent Lords, in sets of four paintings, are typically found in every Bon Temple in the Himalayas and Tibet. These four deities hold a similar position as Shakyamuni Buddha and the Sixteen Arhats, or the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, as is customarily found in each and every Buddhist Temple in the Himalayan regions and Tibet.

The Four Lords are described in detail in chapter 30 of the Ziji, a twelve volume, sixty-one chapter, biography of Tonpa Shenrab. Chapter 30 tells the story of the death of Prince Trishang of Tazik. The Four Lords are the principal deities in the funeral ritual for the prince. In chapter 61 the Four Lords are further discussed with reference to the death and funeral of Tonpa Shenrab.

The red hat (sha marpo) of the Shamar Lamas, of the Karma Kagyu Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, is patterned after the famous black hat of the Gyalwa Karmapas. The 2nd Shamar,  Kacho Wangpo (1350-1405), was the first to have a red copy of the black hat, said to be a gift from his teacher the 4th Karmapa, Rolpai Dorje (1340-1383). Later, the Tsurpu Gyaltsab incarnations and the Tai Situ incarnations, also of the Karma Kagyu, would follow form and adopt the same basic design of the red hat, patterned on the black hat, although with slight stylistic modifications.

The 2nd Gyaltsab, Tashi Namgyal (1490-1518) recieved an orange hat from the 7th Karmapa, Chodrag Gyatso (1454-1506). The 1st Situ, Chokyi Gyaltsen (1377-1448), recieved his title of 'Kenting Tai Situ' from the Chinese emperor Yungle but didn't recieve his red hat until the 5th incarnation of Tai Situ, Chokyi Gyaltsen Palzang (1586-1657). That hat was given by the 9th Karmapa Wangchug Dorje (1556-1602/03).

According to the history of the Karma Kagyu tradition the fifth Karmapa Dezhin Shegpa (1384-1415) was presented a gift of a black hat by the Chinese emperor Yungle. However, according to Mongolian history the first black hat was a gift of Mongke Khan to the 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi. Despite its true origins, this black hat has become the principal identifying characteristic and iconographic attribute in the depictions of the Karmapa incarnation lineage and likewise for the Shamarpa incarnation lineage.

Characteristics of the Shamar Hat

1. Red in colour

2. Round with upturned flaps

3. Front marked with a three or five jewel emblem

4. Sides decorated with cloud pattern trailing to the back

5. Peaked with a gold finial and a large jewel

The shape of the hat itself is more like a cap and similar to a Mongolian or Chinese court minister's head gear. Aside from the colour, black versus red, the cloud pattern on the side of both the Karmapa and Shamarpa hats differs slightly with the pattern of the Shamar hat placed opposite to that of the black hat. The cloud pattern of the Shamar hat, on the right and left side, almost always trails to the back, which means that the cloud pattern appears to be floating forward of the cap. The black hat pattern has the trail, or tail, of the cloud at the front of the cap.

The ornament on the front of the red Shamar hat is tyically either a three jewel emblem/motif, or a five jewel emblem (the latter reminiscent of a stylized double vajra possibly imitating the double vajra of the black hat). In one instance on the HAR website there is a Shamar hat with a double vajra emblem in a painted depiction of the 7th Shamar, Yeshe Nyingpo.

For sculptural representations of the Shamar Lamas, and the red hat, often a simple flat four sided diamond shape is used as the front emblem of the cap. This is also common for sculptural depictions of the Gyalwa Karmapa, Tai Situ and Gyaltsab Lamas.

Observing 20 Shamarpa images on the HAR site, both painting and sculpture, 3 have a simple diamond shaped emblem, 6 have a three jewel emblem, 10 have a five jewel emblem, and only 1 has a double vajra emblem (vishva vajra).

Typically it is the black hat of the Karmapa that has the double vajra symbol. It is important to know that there is an official black with gold and jewel decorations and then there is a simple black cap made of cloth with a diamond front emblem, also of cloth. The simple cloth cap is worn by the Karmapas for less formal occasions. These two types of hats can be confused when rendered as sculptural objects. In paintings it is readily clear by the brightly painted gold and jewel ornaments which hat is being depicted.

Characteristics of the Karmapa Hat

1. Black in colour

2. Round with upturned flaps

3. Front marked with double vajra emblem & a sun and moon above

4. Sides decorated with cloud pattern trailing to the front

5. Sometimes, no cloud pattern, or no clouds for the first four Karmapas

6. Peaked with a gold finial and a large red ruby

Later, the Karmapa's regeant at Tsurpu Monastery, the Tsurpu Gyaltsab incarnation, would also adopt the red cap and generally maintain the same identical ornamentation as the black hat of the Karmapas: double vajra, sun and moon, cloud pattern at the sides and trailing to the front. However, in some depictions of the Gyaltsab Lamas they wear an orange hat with jewels on the front.

The red hat of the Tai Situ incarnations appears to vary in colour between red and orange, most often having a three jewel emblem on the front and the cloud pattern trailing to the back. More importantly, the Tai Situ hat is also slightly different from all of the others in that it has two notches, or divits, along the top of the up-turned right and left flaps, directly above the cloud pattern on the sides. However, this notch is not consistent from one depiction to the next but common enough to be an important characteristic unique to the Tai Situs and their particular hat. Following that inconsitency, the cloud pattern of the Situ cap sometimes trails to the front, like the black hat, and not always to the back, as is standard for the Shamar hat. Although in an early 17th century painting of the 1st Tai Situ he is depicted with a red hat, not orange, and a five jewel emblem, not three, with the clouds trailing to the front, not back, and the two notches on the right and left sides of the cap clearly visible - the notches becoming more common on the Situ hats in later centuries.

Characteristics of the Tai Situ Hat

1. Red in colour

2. Round with upturned flaps

3. Front marked with a three or five jewel emblem

4. Sides decorated with cloud pattern trailing to the back

5. notch on the top of the right and left upturned flaps

6. Peaked with a gold finial and a jewel

It should now be quite clear that the most consitent and recognizable characteristics for all of these hats, especially for the Shamar, is that the Karmapa's hat is black, the Shamarpa's hat is red as is the Gyaltsab and sometimes the Tai Situ's hat. For the Shamarpa and his hat the most important characteristic to recognize is the red colour of the hat with the cloud pattern trailing towards the back followed by the second characteristic of the three or five jewel emblem on the front of the hat. Aside from these few characteristics, that are not necessarily followed religiously, the only way to tell the difference between a Shamar hat and a Situ hat is the hand gestures and attributes of the lama being depicted beneath the hat. The painting composition, inscriptions, facial expression of the figure, and the placement of secondary figures in a composition in relation to the central figure are all important in determining the true identification of a Shamar hat.

Shamarpa Main Page

Shamarpa Outline Page

Karma Kagyu Hats Page

A Shamarpa Outline Page has been added along with additional new images depicting the various Shamar incarnations. Sculpture and painting have their own pages as well as a small section of red hat lamas that are currently unidentified but appear likely to be Shamarpas rather than Situ incanations or Gyaltsab Tulkus.

A Karma Pakshi Guruyoga section has been added to the site and two more images of this rare subject will be uploaded in the near future. (Also see the Guruyoga Main Page).

The Yale University Collection of Himalayan art has been catalogued on the HAR website and awaiting permission to upload the corresponding images. Also see the separate Yale University Collection Objects List page with links to the images on the University Art Gallery website.

The Stupa Main Page has been updated with additional sections and new images.

Two new Fact Sheet pages have been added to to the site and more will be added later. The purpose of these pages is to give a very short, clear, introduction to the major religious traditions of the Himalayas and to provide links to the principle visual subjects and catagories on the HAR site.

Fact Sheets:
Shangpa Kagyu Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism
Sakya Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

Vajrasattva is a Buddhist deity originating in India and primarily functioning universally as a Tantric practice for the purification of sins and defilements. Vajrasattva also has a number of forms used as meditational deities (ishtadevata, yidam).

Vajrasattva is the inner form of the primodial buddha Vajradhara and represents all the Buddha Families. The 'Solitary Universal Ruler,' in the single aspect without consort, arises from the Yoga Tantras. In the New (Sarma) Schools of Tibetan Buddhism Vajrasattva with consort arises from the class of Anuttarayoga Tantra, specifically from the Abhidhanottara Tantra, 25th chapter, and is known as Heruka Vajrasattva.

In the Nyingma Tradition Vajrasattva is not only a deity of purification but an important meditational deity with many Kama (Oral) and Terma (Treasure) traditions. The most famous meditational form is the Vajrasattva of the Mindroling Monastery Tradition commonly known as the Min-ling Dor-sem.

Depictions of Vajrasattva in sculpture and painting are often confused with the similar deities - Vajradhara, Vajrapani, Vajravidarana, the Five Symbolic Buddhas (in Sambhogakaya form), and others. In a number of Yoga Tantra examples the form of Vajrapani, in the Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Tantra system, appears in exactly the same appearance as the typical 'Solitary Hero' Vajrasattva. A sculpture of the primordial Buddha Vajradhara has the exact same physical iconographic appearance as Heruka Vajrasattva - also depicted with the two hands holding a vajra and bell crossed in embrace holding the consort. In paintings the Heruka Vajrasattva is painted white while the Vajradhara form always appears blue in colour. In physical appearance many forms of Vajrasattva and Vajravidarana are only recognized and differentiated because Vajrasattva holds a single vajra scepter to the heart while Vajravidarana holds a double vajra scepter to the heart. Vajravidarana, like Vajrasattva, can also appear in a white form.

Vajrasattva Forms:

1. Solitary Hero in bodhisattva posture, from the Yoga Tantras

2. Solitary Hero in vajra posture

3. Vajrasattva, Yellow (Atisha Tradition)

4. Vajrasattva with Consort, Anuttarayoga Tantra

5. Heruka Vajrasattva, hands crossed at the heart

6. Vajrasattva 17 Deity Mandala (Mitra Gyatsa)

7. Vajrasattva (Mindroling Tradition)

8. Samputa Vajrasattva, Samputa Tantra

9. Vajrasattva Samvara 17 Deity Mandala

View another example of How to Read a Painting #2.

Himalayan Art is a new area of study and in this study there are new tools and new ways to observe, approach and analyze the objects and works of art.

There are three important
fields of study that have to be brought together equally: (1)
Art History, (2) Iconography and (3) Religious Studies.

Because of the religious nature of the art and because of the living tradition - that the objects are very much a part of - there are three important points to observe when studying a Himalayan and Tibetan art object: (1) the Form - the physical object, (2) Function - the intention or purpose of creation and (3) Subject Meaning - the abstract concepts and symbolic meanings.

Following from the application of those three important points are (1) Analysis, (2) Interpretation and (3) Identification.

These pages for Reading a Painting are part of the on-going HAR project to create a Himalayan Art Curriculum and Study Guide. The image #113 (Chaturbhuja Mahakala) was chosen randomly based on a casual discussion with a museum guide. Paintings and sculpture covering a wider range of subject and type will be added in the future.