SHORT DESCRIPTION OF GODS, GODDESSES AND RITUAL OBJECTS by Jnan Bahadur Sakya
Long title for a very cool little book. This covers alphabetically all the postures, mudras, deities, and ritual objects - giving throrough information from a few sentences to whole paragraphs of the meaning and purpose of the richly symbolic items and figures known to Hindus and Buddhists.
Buddhist Divinities is a thoughtful contribution to the history of Buddhism comprising both history of religion and art. It presents a systematic account of many renowned scholars of Buddhist religion, philosophy and literature who worked and studied in the monastic universities of Bengal and Bihar. These scholars contributed most to the history of Buddhist religion and for this they received respect above god for their learning and character.
The art that arose from the snowy heights and in the warm plains of India became the frozen music of form in the vast expanses of Asia, from Siberia, Mongolia, Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan to Nepal, Ceylon, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and other countries. Indian art in its Buddhist idiom is a transic response to the immensity of hummano-cosmic unity.
THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY BUDDHIST DEITIES by Tachikawa
Contains an important collection of line drawings of Tibetan Buddhist deities. Since the collection contains the figures of about three hundred & sixty Buddhist deities, it has been called "Three Hundred and Sixty Buddhist Deities." "The original title of the collection is in Chinese: Chu Fo P'u-sa Sheng Hsiang Tsan (The Eulogy of Sacred Images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas). Obviously, the collection of Tibetan Buddhist deities was compiled in China.
ICONOGRAPHY OF A THOUSAND BUDDHAS by Lokesh Chandra
Iconography of the Thousand Buddhas records their names in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Manchu, Mongolian and Chinese. Also contained in the text is Tibetan drawings of the Thousand Buddhas obtained from the printery below the Potala Palace at Lhasa in Tibet. These drawing have been reproduced in this book for the first time.
The recitation of a thousand names or epithets of a deity is an ancient Indian tradition: an awareness of the perennial possibilities of the spiritual horizon. Here the illuminated mind is thousand folded into ever higher intuition of the infinity of the transcendent Universal. The thousand epithets of the Buddha underwent an apotheosis as the Thousand Buddhas and they became a thousand pictures or a thousand icons, in variations of fives or sixes.
A fundamental work based on original Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and the lost Iranian language Sogdian and Tibetan works-on the origin of Avalokitesvara. It indentifies the several prevalent folk-deities, which were assimilated into the iconographical form. The worship of Avalokitesvara was accompanied by a dharani (recited hymn). This work describes five versions of the dharani. The dharani is an essential part of the Zen repertoire of sutras.
ICONOGRAPHY OF TIBETAN LAMAISM by Antoinette K. Gordon
The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism was first published in 1939, for the express purpose of "giving the student interested in Tibetan iconography a general idea of the development of Buddhism into Lamaism, and making easier the identification of the various deities of the Tibetan pantheon." Although interest in the field has grown over the years, the book has remained the only authoritative work of its kind.
The book gives a descriptive outline of the principal Gods in the Tibetan pantheon, tracing the main features and symbols that are used to denote each one. A comprehensive illustrated list of the various ritual objects, talismans, symbols, mudras (symbolic hand poses), and asanas and vahanas (position of the lower limbs) that are used in the images of Gods is accompanied with a word list of the Sanskrit terms most commonly encountered in a study of Lamaism.
MEETING THE BUDDHAS: A Guide to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Tantric Deities by Vessantara
Sitting poised and serene upon fragrant lotus blooms, they offer smiles of infinite tenderness, immeasurable wisdom. Bellowing formidable roars of angry triumph from the heart of blazing infernos, they dance on the naked corpses of their enemies.
Who are these beings - the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Protectors, the 'angry demons' and 'benign deities' - of the Buddhist Tantric tradition? Are they products of an alien, even disturbed, imagination? Or are they, perhaps, real? What have they got to do with Buddhism? And what have they got to do with us?
In this vivid and informed account, an experienced Western Buddhist guides us to the miraculous beings who dwell there.
Although this book can be used as a work of reference, it offers much more than a relaxed museum visit. Are we awake? Or are we dreaming? Surely, those awesome figures are alive - and have a message with the power to change our lives.
The propitiation of Dharma protectors is a common practice in traditional Tibetan religious life. There are thousands of deities worshipped by different sects, groups and individuals and this book presents the principal protectors in Tibet. Presented are 22 major deities: 4 & 6 arm Mahakala, Palden Lhamo, Dharmaraja, Nechung, Nam-Sey, Bhegtse, Four Directional Protectors, etc.
RUTHLESS COMPASSION: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art by Rob Linrothe
"Ruthless Compassion" offers a visual history of esoteric Buddhism centered on the changing representations of the wrathful deity. This group of art objects is comprised mainly of sculpture surviving from the sixth to the thirteen centuries at widely scattered sites throughout eastern India, Europe and America. Linrothe isolates the wrathful deity as an especially revealing ideological marker in the develpment of esoteric Buddhism.
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