Diagrammatic Prayers

These three images are large mural paintings at the entrance to the Deer Park Institute temple in Bir, India (the old Dzongsar Institute). They are diagrammatic prayers intended to be read in any direction and still retain their meaning. Creating visually pleasing depictions of prayers is an old Indian tradition that found its way to Tibet and the Himalayas through the Buddhist migration northward. These particular prayers were composed by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo in the 19th century. At the top is a Shakyamuni Buddha prayer followed by Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen and finally Longchen Rabjampa at the bottom. The Shakyamuni and Sapan are on the left of the entrance and the Longchenpa on the right accompanied by a sword and lotus motif with two double headed birds (not shown here). All of these images will be uploaded to the HAR database shortly.

Google Alert: "Himalayan Art Resources"

Additions & Updates

The main Sakya Outline Page has been re-worked. Added to this at the bottom, as you already saw, is the Sakya Protectors Outline Page. Linked to that is a new outline page for Panjarnata Mahakala. There is still more work to be done on that subject. Also new to the Sakya Outline Page is the Monasteries & Branch Schools outline. This new page will become more meaningful and develop as more images are uploaded in the next few weeks and months. We currently have several thousand images from locations in Central and West Tibet waiting to be uploaded.

The Mural Paintings of Tibet outline became way too large and had to be split into several pages: main page, Eastern Tibet (Kham, Amdo), Central Tibet, Western Tibet. More mural images and new locations are ready to be uploaded to the HAR site. These outline pages will probably have to change again soon to accommodate all of the new images.

With the Mural Paintings of Tibet page there are also many outside shots of the buildings and caves that house the murals. In an attempt to simplify the topic of architecture the important subjects and types have been grouped together on the Architecture Outline Page. This will need to be re-worked as the technical vocabulary and terms are sorted out and standardized.