Himalayan Art Resources

Buddhist Deity: Amitabha (Charya & Yoga Tantras)

Amitabha Iconography | Vairochana Mandalas

All of the references to Amitabha Buddha below are as secondary figures in mandalas. All of the forms of Amitabha has peaceful deity appearance, with long hair, jewels and heavenly garments. In most cases he appears red in colour. Two of the examples belonging to the Paramadya Tantra are gold in colour.


Charya Tantra (Conduct):

Toh 479. The Compendium of Realities. དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་བསྡུས་པ། · de kho na nyid bsdus pa. tattvasaṃgraha.

- Vajradhatu Mandala (1,037 deity)
- Amitabha (west, red)

Toh 480. The Great Secret Yogatantra, the Tip of the Vajra. གསང་བ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་མོ། · gsang ba rnal 'byor chen po'i rgyud rdo rje rtse mo. vajraśekharamahāguhyayogatantra.

- Vajrashekhara Samkshiptakula Mandala (1,271 deity)
- Amitabha (west, red)

Toh 487. The Supreme. དཔལ་མཆོག་དང་པོ། · dpal mchog dang po/paramādikalpa
Toh 488. A Section of the Chapter on Mantras of "The Supreme." རྟོག་པའི་དུམ་བུ། · rtog pa'i dum bu. paramādyamantrakalpakhaṇḍa.

- Paramadya Samkshiptakula Mandala (319 deity)
- Amitabha (west, gold)

- Paramadya Vajrasattva Mandala (77 deity)
- Amitabha (west, gold)

Toh 483. The Tantra Purifying Evil Destinies. ངན་སོང་སྦྱོང་རྒྱུད། · ngan song sbyong rgyud. sarvadurgatipariśodhanatejorāja.

- Vajrapani Chitta Mandala
- Amitabha (west)

- Chakravarti Guna Mandala
- Amitabha (west)
Yoga/Anuttarayoga Tantra:

Toh 360. Reciting the Names of Mañjuśrī. འཇམ་དཔལ་མཚན་བརྗོད། · 'jam dpal mtshan brjod. mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti.

- Dharmadhatu Vagishvara Manjushri Mandala (219 deity)
- Amitabha (west, 4 faces, 8 arms)

- Samkshiptakula Guhyaka Manjushri Mandala (57 deity)
- Amitabha (west, red)

Jeff Watt [updated 6-2021]