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Probably one of the most famous Tibetan contemporary artists of his time was the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje (1604-1674). It is said that he was trained in a traditional Menri Style and then later studied in a Kashmiri style. What is obviously apparent is that the examples of his work that have come down to us today are in a unique style - the style of Choying Dorje. The three images of paintings below are by the 10th Karmapa Choying Dorje).


See other works of art by Choying Dorje.

For the multi-faced and armed deity, note the gate-like halo surrounding the main figure. It is created to appear as if water, manipulated and suspended. Also see the throne beneath the central subject, rendered with the same treatment, and added figures supporting the pink lotus.

Probably the most unique set of paintings created by Choying Dorje is the life story of Shakyamuni Buddha. No explanation should be required, all that one need to do is look to see how special it is. Look at the colours, the forms, the composition, the rendering of the human figures, animals and birds.

The 10th Karmapa was also famous for his depictions of animals and birds. Notice in this painting of a yellow goddess how the sow and piglets beneath the deity figure are rendered far more life-like with a richness of detail than the yellow deity herself.

A capital 'C' contemporary artist, although sometimes trained traditionally, is often somebody that breaks the rules and is innovative. Sometimes the artist is copied by other artists and a new style is created from that, and at other times no one can follow where that artist has gone.

Choying Dorje is an example of a contemporary artist that was not followed by other artists. It also can't really be said that he was a traditional Tibetan artist either - he was an innovative contemporary artist of his time. I believe that he had a love of art, and of animals - clearly shown in his paintings and biography - and I believe that he created art for art's sake.

A new addition has been added to the Gelug Refuge Field Page. The added painting is very unusual as it seems to present the Buddha with the One Thousand Buddhas of this Age, the Dharma and Sangha as the principal focus. The Guru and Ishtadevata are represented at the top center by Vajrasattva, Tsongkapa and Vajrabhairava. Two Wealth Deities, both forms of Jambhala, are placed to the right and left sides of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas (Sangha) in the bottom tier of the of the composition - just above the pink lotus. The Dharma protectors, represented here by the Four Guardian Kings, are found below the pink lotus amongst the other worldly inhabitants of the Buddhist universe.

The earliest known painting of a Karma Kagyu Refuge Field composition has been updated with all of the figures numbered and named. Also see the colour coded image identifying and naming the various groupings of figures: Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Meditational Deities, Protector Deities and Wealth Deities. At the top right and left are Manjushri and Maitreya accompanied by the Six Ornaments and Two Excellent Ones of the Southern Continent. Directly below those are miscellaneous Indian and Tibetan teachers. At the top center interspersed with the early teachers of the Mahamudra Lineage are the Eight Great Siddhas according to the system of Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne.

When first looking at a painting such as this - a figure wearing red robes - the mind generally wants to identify the central figure first, possibly discern the relationship with the smaller side figures and then understand the over-all visual narrative, or iconographic program. Also included in this is the religious meaning and the intention for the creation of the work, based on the donor, and its corresponding function. An analysis of the painting based on all of the above criteria falls within the realm of the intellect, intellectual analysis of the subject. This is the approach most often taken by viewers of Himalayan art paintings such as this. However, what is missed is the aesthetic qualities of the painting, the composition, the colour balance and the symmetry. A useful technique to use for looking at painted compositions, that is not distracting to the eye and mind with intellectual analysis, is to invert the image.

The unusual iconographic form of Avalokiteshvara known as Hari Hari Hari Lokeshvara is depicted in a peaceful form with multiple arms seated atop the Hindu god Vishnu, atop Vishnu's mount - Garuda, and further atop a lion. Three small image examples are given of which only one is currently on the HAR website. The images show differences in the hand attributes and in one example a variation in how the god Vishnu is depicted and confused with the god of eclipse - Rahula.

The Milarepa Main Page has been updated with additional images and a short illustrated biography. There are still more images being acquired from various private and institutional collections. These will also be added to the site in the next few weeks along with images of Tibetan teachers that are often confused with or similar in appearace to Milarepa.

A short biography/hagiography of the Bon religious teacher Tapihritsa has been uploaded to the HAR site. The narrator of the story is Lobpon Tenzin Namdak, a senior teacher of the Bon Religion.

The large sculpture of Kunzang Akor, discussed in a previous post, has been added to the HAR database along with detail images.

Additional images have been added to the database entry for the famous Menri Monastery silver Drenpa Namkha sculpture. The image has also been added to the Bon Sculpture Masterworks page.

This beautiful Sherab Chamma sculpture has been added to the database. Sherab Chamma is the principal female deity/goddess of the Bon Religion and can appear in many forms [see outline page]. The image here is only black and white but regardless the beauty of the piece stands out immediately. The face is quite lovely and the body proportions are very good. The image has also been added to the Sherab Chamma masterworks page.

Presented here is a chart listing all of the standard appearances of Padmasambhava and those appearances in combination with other immediately related iconographic subjects.

The Padmasambhava Iconographic Sub-sets Chart is a work in progress based on the chart created for Tonpa Shenrab - posted some weeks ago. We are attempting to systematize, categorize and prioritize the visual occurrences of Padmasambhava with the intention of making it easier to identify, name and contextualize the various forms of Guru Rinpoche as they occur in painting and sculpture.

On a recent art survey trip to China, the HAR Team discovered that while working with Chinese and Tibetan colleagues, there was no common language or system in place for discussing the numerous and varied visual occurrences of Padmasambhava. This became even more apparent when cataloguing vast numbers of paintings, in the hundreds, from broken sets depicting subjects such as the life story of Padmasambhava, wrathful forms, meditational forms, the Eight Manifestations relating to the life-story, etc., etc. 

This is our first attempt to try and bring some order to this very large and complicated subject that has a voluminous wealth of paintings and sculpture spread throughout the world. In terms of quantities of art representing various subjects, aside from representations of the Buddhas, Arhats, Peaceful Deities and Wrathful Deities, the subject of Padmasambhava is probably the next most prolific and in immediate need of systematization (which the other categories of art subjects have already received either within the Buddhist traditions themselves over the past centuries or by modern art historians and religious studies scholars in the previous century).

So, please be patient, this is still a work in progress.

This set of five paintings was commissioned in Northern India in 2007/2008 and depict the historical Buddha Shakyamuni in the first composition and four famous teachers belonging to the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug Traditions in the accompanying four paintings.

Shakyamuni Buddha is surrounded by the Six Ornaments & Two Excellent Ones of the Southern Continent. For the Nyingma Tradition Longchenpa Drime Ozer is depicted. For the Sakya it is Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen. For the Kagyu it is Milarepa Zhepa Dorje and for the Gelug Tsongkapa Lobzang Dragpa. Each figure, major and minor - in the five painted compositions, is accompanied by a name inscription written in the Tibetan 'U-chen' script.

The other name worthy Buddhist lineages of Tibet such as Kadam, Rwa, Shangpa Kagyu, Jonang, Bodong and Bulug are represented by individual teachers in the four paintings depicting the four principal traditions. Over the next few weeks the five images will be greyscaled and each figure numbered and related to a numbered list of names for easy identification.

Most of the sculpture in the HAR database are identified as to subject and origin, however some pieces defy identification. In those rare cases the objects are often not Himalayan in origin, or Tibetan, or Mongolian, etc.,  and may not be related to Tibetan Buddhism or the Bon Religion at all. Sometimes the pieces are poorly crafted, or belong to a larger composition and not understandable and identifiable unless in context with the whole.

To facilitate a greater ease for investigation some of the stranger pieces on the HAR website have been put together into a single group of images - Sculpture - Strange, Weird & Unidentified. Also related to this subject are  the links for Weird & Fantastical Gods & Deities, Animal Headed Gods & Deities along with the three groupings of images on Unidentified Subjects, Siddhas and Teachers. Please let us know if you are successful in identifying any or all of the uncatalogued images.

This Kunzang Akor is the most important Bon sculpture to appear in years. Back in 2006 a Sherab Chamma sculpture in the collection of LACMA, previously described as an early Himalayan goddess, was identified as a very early standing figure of the most important female deity of the Bon religion. Now, this Kunzang Akor has surfaced from a private collection. It is large, beautifully cast and appears to be from the Khassa Malla workshops of West Nepal. It is possible that it was created for the Bon temples in the Dolpo region of West Nepal. The image is not yet uploaded to the HAR website but will be added soon. See more images of the figure of Kunzang Akor.

The pages relating to Cho (Chod) have been updated with new images and sections. A new Machig Labdron Outline Page has been added along with updates to the Cho Refuge Field Page and the Religious Tradition Page. The Blue Annals Cho History still requires editing, formatting and the addition of images.

Tonpa Shenrab, the founder of the Bon Religion, has two typical depictions commonly found in art. Aside from those two, he has numerous forms that appear as deities with multiple heads, arms, various colours, along with peaceful and wrathful moods - these however are much less common. (See Tonpa Shenrab: Iconography Sub-sets Outline).

Typically, Tonpa Shenrab appears seated in a cross-legged meditation posture with the right hand extended over the right knee - often holding a yungdrung scepter - and the left hand in the lap with the palm facing upward. In this standard appearance there are two basic versions. The first version is (1) Tonpa Shenrab as he is represented when depicted as one of the group of the Four Transcendent Lords, adorned with a crown, silks, jewelry and ornaments. He will either hold a yungdrung scepter or have a yungdrung staff behind the right shoulder. Some consider this form to be the original, or traditional, way of depicting Tonpa Shenrab. The second version (2) is as Tritsug Gyalwa capturing the moment when late in life Tonpa Shenrab renounces the householder life and takes on the ascetiscm of a religious mendicant and becomes a monk - along with two of his sons and two principal students - often depicted to the right and left sides.

Sipai Gyalmo is the principal female protector deity in the Bon Religion (see Outline Page). Typically there are two common forms of the deity, Sipai Gyalmo Riding a Black Mule and Sipai Gyalmo Riding a Red Mule. These two forms are identified by their three heads and six hands. The mules are black or red. The hand objects are different between the two forms. Additionally four celestial beings hold up the hooves of the red mule.

In the Bon religion the Queen of Existence (or Queen of the World) is the most wrathful manifestation of the peaceful deity Loving Mother of Wisdom (T. Sherab Chamma). Fierce in appearance, black in color, she has three faces and six arms holding weapons and implements of power and control. While riding the red mule she holds in the three right hands a victory banner, flaming sword and a peg. The left hands hold a trident, svastika wand, and a skullcup filled with blood. Each of these symbolically represents cutting the knots of illusion and rooting out the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion. Riding on the mule, she sits atop a flayed human skin symbolizing impermanence while the brightly burning flames of wisdom fire surround her.

The Queen of Existence is both a meditational deity and a protector. She is one of the most frequently propitiated figures in the Bon religion, and extends her protection to both religious practitioners and common people alike. Though horrific and wrathful in form she embodies the qualities of wisdom and compassion.

Satrig Ersang and Sherab Chamma are two different manifestations of the same Bon female deity (Outline Page). Satrig Ersang ranks with the highest of Bon Deities/Gods being included as one of the Four Transcendent Lords and named first among them. In her preeminent role Satrig Ersang is generally depicted in a standard appearance holding the attributes of a yungdrung and mirror while seated in a secure meditation posture.

Sherab Chamma can be thought of as an activity manifestation of Satrig Ersang where she takes on the roles of meditational deity, a deity of healing such as Yeshe Walmo, and in her most horrific of appearances - Sipai Gyalmo - the principal protector of the Bon Religion.

This image is of the earliest known Sakya Refuge Field painting - Field of Accumulation - to appear in any museum or private collection (or known mural in situ). It is dated by style to the 20th century. The depiction follows the traditional Sakya textual descriptions for placing the lineage of teachers on a flat plane surrounding the central Vajradhara or Guru figure - in this case it is Sakya Pandita. This Sakya configuration differs from others such as Jamgon Kongtrul's description of placing the lineage teachers one above the other in a vertical line. This however doesn't mean that the various traditions only have one way of doing things. What has become clear is that how things are presented in the liturgical texts describing visualizations is not necessarily how the artists depict those very specific descriptions.

Very recently, paintings depicting Sakya Refuge Fields have been created (see HAR #61218, #89994) but in the style described by Jamgon Kongtrul using the Karma Kagyu 'five branch' tree model and a vertical hierarchy (see example). In 1979/80 a very detailed drawing of a Sakya Refuge Field was created that followed very closely the compsoition and style of the Gelug Tradition based on the writings of the 1st Panchen Lama. Is this possibly an instance where art and the popularity of a particular Refuge Field composition & style is dictating the iconography even where there is no traditional textual basis?

Because of this relatively new tradition of creating Refuge Field paintings a fascinating window has opened that allows an insight into the relationship between art & iconography, religious texts, the actual living practices, practitioners themselves and how they create and use visual forms.

Sakya Refuge Field Page - updated

Refuge Field Main Page - updated

This image is of the earliest known Karma Kagyu Refuge Field painting - Field of Accumulation - to appear in any museum or private collection (or known mural in situ). It can be dated to the life of the 15th Karmapa Kakyab Dorje (1870/71-1921/22). His typical iconographic attributes are a vajra and bell held in the hands along with two flowers supporting a sword and book. In this painting the 15th Karmapa is depicted in the lower part of the composition. Above his left shoulder is a long-life vase on a flower blossom with the sword and book on a flower at the right shoulder. The vase or rather a long-life vase is often used to indicate that a teacher is still alive when a painting or sculpture is commissioned. It is an auspicious long-life gesture by the donor and artist. At the right and left sides of the seated Karmapa are Situpa and Jamyang Dorje. The Situ must be the 11th Situpa, Pema Wangchug Gyalpo (1886-1952). The other figure of Jamyang Dorje is not quite as identifiable but is likely to be Jamyang Rinpoche the 11th Shamarpa and son of the 15th Karmapa, Kakyab Dorje.

The painting is extremely detailed and each figure is accompanied by a written name inscription beneath. The specific Karma Kagyu teachers depicted are of the Mahamudra lineage beginning with Vajradhara, the primordial Buddha, and the Indian mahasiddha Saraha. The over-all appearance of the composition along with the names of the teachers follows closely the text Ngedon Dronme of Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899) based on the Ngedon Gyatso of the 9th Karmapa, Wangchug Dorje, (1555-1603). Kongtrul is also depicted in the composition slightly to the upper left of Kakyab Dorje (the viewer's right).

This type of painted composition, based on the visual examples in the HAR database, appears to be a very late phenomenon in Tibetan and Himalayan art quite possibly only becoming popular in the 18th century. The earliest examples appear to be the Gelug paintings of the late 18th century based on the liturgical text of the 'Lama Chopa' written by the 1st Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662) in the 17th century.

Nyimgma Refuge Field paintings first appear in the 19th century as a visual representation of the Field of Accumulation for the Longchen Nyingtig uncommon preliminary practices as taught by Jigme Lingpa and later explained in detail by Patrul Rinpoche in the famous text, The Words of My Perfect Teacher. These Longchen Nyingtig refuge depictions are the only Nyingma paintings identified so far.

As for the Kagyu Tradition the Drigung appear to be the earliest to adopt this visual model with a number of examples followed by the Drugpa Kagyu with one example on the HAR website. The Karma Kagyu and Sakya Traditions are the last to adopt the visual form with one example each represented on HAR. The earliest Karma Kagyu Refuge Field is dated to between 1900 and 1922 based on inscriptions and the figure of the 15th Karmapa, Kakyab Dorje. The earliest Sakya artifact is a block print image of a White Tara Field of Accumulation from the Dege Parkang (Printing House) in East Tibet, likely a creation of the 20th century.