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Journal articles on the topic 'Tibetan Buddhist art'
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1
Zuo, Yun. "Study on the Composition of Inner Mongolia Wudangzhao Monastery Building Complex." Applied Mechanics and Materials 357-360 (August 2013): 141–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.357-360.141.
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Tibetan Buddhist monasteries embody almost all achievements of the Tibetan community in religious, scientific, cultural and artistic. The erection of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries are closely related to the history of Tibetan Buddhism in Inner Mongolia. As the Tibetan Buddhism had been spread to Inner Mongolia in different periods, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries presented different features in its architectural style. Wudangzhao Lamasery is the grandest integral monastery complex still remaining in Inner Mongolia.Its buildings have high value of art and characteristically Tibetan Buddhist Architectural style on monasterys arrangement and style. Different types of the building gathered together form a Tibetan monastery, buildings complex reflected the intact standard of Tibetan Architecture. They express the Tibetan traditional mountain worship idea, and Buddhist the Mandala Cosmology and Three Realms idea.
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Yan, Zhilong, and Aixin Zhang. "“Ritual and Magic” in Buddhist Visual Culture from the Bird Totem." Religions 13, no. 8 (August 8, 2022): 719. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel13080719.
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Despite numerous research findings related to medieval Chinese Buddhism, the witchcraft role of bird totems in Buddhist history has not received sufficient attention. In order to fill this gap, this paper analyzes how Buddhist monks in medieval China developed a close relationship with bird-totem worship. This relationship has been documented in Buddhist scriptures, rituals, oral traditions, biographies, and mural art. Although bird-totem worship was practiced in many regions of medieval China, this paper specifically examines the visual culture of bird totems in Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism. Furthermore, some details of this culture were recorded in Buddhist texts and images. According to these works, various bird-totem patterns and symbols are believed to be effective ritual arts used by Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist monks to influence nature and the supernatural through ritual and magic.
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Morehart, Mary J., Liu Lizhong, and Ralph Kiggell. "Buddhist Art of the Tibetan Plateau." Pacific Affairs 62, no. 3 (1989): 423. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2760658.
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Wang, Xiaoyong. "Between the Religious Act and Art Commodity." Re:Locations - Journal of the Asia-Pacific World 2, no. 1 (May 15, 2019): 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.33137/relocations.v2i1.31674.
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Rebgong, located in Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, China, has become one of the most productive areas of Tibetan Thangka painting since the 1980s. Why has Rebgong, a place outside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), become the stronghold of Thangka commercialization? How have Thangka Buddhist painters reacted to the commercialization of their work? I chose to focus on the changes in the past decades in the transmission and commercialization models of Rebgong Thangka. Based on my analysis of both Chinese and English textual sources as well as three weeks of fieldwork conducted in Rebgong, consisting of observation and interviews with key players such as local Thangka masters, students, government officials and dealers, I argue that the models of technique transmission and commercialization have both drastically changed over the past decades, despite the continuation of some features of traditional master-disciple transmission. To justify these changes and compensate for the traditions they betrayed, the key players employed several moral strategies and negotiated with the Buddhist community to maintain a balance between Thangka as a religious object and as a pure commodity. Meanwhile, the sales of Thangka are essentially dependent on its religious meaning. The project attempts to contribute to our understanding of the transformation of religious art alongside modernization, especially the marketization of the economy, and problematize the dichotomy of its religious function and commodity nature. Equally intriguing in this case is how changes in the realm of religious art fundamentally reshaped a specific place and the associated social relations of particular religious and ethnic natures in modern China.
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Demenova, Victoria V. "Sino-Tibetan Style of Buddhist Sculpture: Articulation of the Attribution Problem." Izvestia of the Ural federal university. Series 2. Humanities and Arts 24, no. 2 (2022): 272–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.15826/izv2.2022.24.2.039.
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This article is devoted to the concept of “style” and the possibility of its application in the attribution of works of Buddhist metal sculpture. This aspect, which, as a rule, is peripheral for classical Oriental studies, Buddhology, and history, where it is interpreted quite freely, is one of the key ones for art history and museum attribution activities. The author notes the terminological and factual diversity of the designation of the “Sino-Tibetan style” in the circle of researchers of the art of Buddhism. The author poses the question of what exactly the concept of “Sino-Tibetan style” means and whether it is an indication of the body of technical and plastic features of sculptures, or just a designation of the geography of the origin of Buddhist sculptures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made in the western provinces of China. The author refers to three sculptures which are the most controversial ones from the point of view of attribution (Maitreya Buddha from the private collection of A. V. Glazyrin (Ekaterinburg), Shakyamuni Buddha, and Begtse from the collection of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore), which have several similar stylistic features, and which could presumably be attributed to the “Sino-Tibetan style” of the eighteenth century. Also, the article presents the results of the study of the metal composition of these sculptures using an X-ray fluorescence analyser (spectrometer). Based on the data obtained on the content of substances in the alloy and considering the general artistic and stylistic features of metal images, the author makes a conclusion as to when the attribution designation “Tibeto-Chinese style” is the most accurate one and when it can be applied to Buddhist gilded sculptures created on the territory of China (Manchu Qin dynasty) between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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Daugherty, Jay. "Our Land, Our People: A Reflection of Tibetan Buddhist Space in Contemporary Art." HIMALAYA 40, no. 2 (November 15, 2021): 50–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.2218/himalaya.2021.6589.
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This article illustrates how a contemporary Tibetan artist disrupts expectations in the creation of his political art. Utilizing Robert Smithson’s dialogic of site and non-site, Tenzing Rigdol’s 2011 site-specific installation Our Land, Our People is interpreted as a reenactment of a culturally specific historical practice of moving space. This approach shares important similarities to historical cases in which physical spaces were relocated to and within Tibet, allowing for the application of 20th century theories arising in the spatial turn to contemporary Tibetan art.
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Grela, Joanna. "Avalokiteśvara in Tibetan Buddhist Art of the Later Spread (Tib. phyi dar) of the Dharma. Image Classification Proposal, Part 2." Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture New Series, no. 13 (1/2021) (2021): 37–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.4467/24506249pj.21.002.13729.
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According to traditional Buddhist narratives and popular beliefs, Tibetans are a people chosen by Avalokiteśvara. Therefore, his worship and multitude, as well as diversity of his images, are quite common both in temples and public areas. Unlike the widespread analyses where the Bodhisattva has been treated as a peaceful tutelary deity, and classifications of its images have been based on morphological features, or artistic styles and techniques, this paper proposes another approach by grounding images in Tantric Buddhism models used locally, e.g. outer, inner and secret forms of the Three Jewels or the Three Refuges, popular in Tantric Buddhism. The second part of this paper focuses on images of Avalokiteśvara as a meditational deity and a Dharma protector, which corresponds to the last two out of the three inner aspects of the Three Jewels. Using the method developed by Erwin Panofsky and the analysis of primary Tibetan text are partly used as convenient tools for the description and exegesis of images.
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Nurova, Gerlya V. "К истории cоздания росписей центрального буддийского храма Калмыкии (2016–2019 гг.)." Desertum Magnum: studia historica Великая степь: исторические исследования, no. 2 (December 30, 2020): 179–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2712-8431-2020-10-2-179-191.
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The article discusses the history of the creation thangka paintings in the Central Buddhist Temple (khurul) of the Republic of Kalmykia which was opened in 2005. The article attempts at giving analysis of the formation of sacral art environment of the Elista Buddhist Temple in the context of the development of Tibetan-Kalmyk Buddhist relationships. The article describes the stages, peculiarities and complexity of the painting process that was done by the Tibetan artists who came from India and are masters of the traditional thangka painting. The author gives the documental facts about the work organization and process that lasted almost three years. The article gives information about thangka painters, well-known nowadays: their biographies, characteristics and the information about their further life. By creation the paintings of the Central Khurul, these painters contributed to the development of the spiritual culture in Kalmykia.
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Haoribao, Enke, Yoshinori Natsume, and Shinichi Hamada. "Arrangement Plan of Inner Mongolia Buddhist Temple." ATHENS JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE 8, no. 1 (December 17, 2022): 67–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.30958/aja.8-1-4.
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Since BC, the construction of cities has been started in the Mongolian Plateau with the establishment of dynasties, but many were turned into ruins. However, the Tibetan Buddhist temples built after the 16th century, which are an indispensable element in the process of settling the Mongolians from nomadic life, have been relatively well preserved in Inner Mongolia. These temples have been thought to be the epitome of the Mongolian economy, culture, art, and construction technology. Therefore, it has a great significance to research them systematically. Interestingly, these temples in Mongolia were originated from Inner Mongolia, which is located on the south side of Mongolia. The architectural design of these temples has been primarily influenced by Chinese and Tibetan temple architecture, suggesting that the temples appear to be considered a vital sample for studying temple architecture in Mongolia or East Asia. So far, there is still no study systematically on temple architecture in Inner Mongolia. Therefore, this research aims to study the arrangement plan of Inner Mongolian Tibetan Buddhist temples, which is the most important factor to consider in the first stage of temple construction.
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Belova, Darya Nikolaevna. "Manifestation of female image in iconography of the Tibetan thangka and orthodox icon." Культура и искусство, no. 5 (May 2020): 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.7256/2454-0625.2020.5.32764.
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This article analyzes the female beginning reflected in the Buddhist art of thangka, and emphasizes its specificity in comparison with the Orthodox icon. The author examines symbolism of the key visual elements that form iconography of female characters and their color solution, as well as analyzes the symbolism of light in thangka painting and painting of icons. In drawing parallels between light symbolism of a female image in both types of religious paintings, the author determines their definite similarity in perception of light as a divine beginning of enlightened mind. The subject of this study is the Tibetan thangka and the Orthodox icon, viewed in the context of evolution of the female divine image within the chronological framework of the XV – XVII centuries. The relevance is substantiated by the growing interest of various experts to the religious painting thangka. In examination of sacred images of Buddhist thangkas and Orthodox icons were applied the comparative-historical and iconographic methods that lean on philosophical, culturological and art scientific materials. The novelty consists in the fact that based comparative analysis of the material of Tibetan thangkas and Orthodox icons, the author explores the traditions of depicting light manifestations of sacred images of women. Iconographic plot traces the formation of light and its role in creation of the female guise of wisdom. The conclusion is made that for assessing the Tibetan Buddhist art of thangka and Orthodox icon it is necessary to grasp the essence of female beginning and significance of the symbolism of light that indicates the aspect of wisdom and love on the path of spiritual growth.
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Dachille, Rae. "Running the Numbers for the Path of Mantra: Distinguishing the Thirteenth Bhūmi in Fifteenth-Century Tibet." Religions 12, no. 3 (March 9, 2021): 175. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12030175.
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This article explores a Buddhist text in which numbers set the very stakes for liberation. In 1404, Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang po (1382–1456), who was to become one of the most esteemed tantric commentators of the Tibetan Sakya tradition, composed his first polemical text, Dispelling Evil Misunderstandings of the Explanation of the Ground of Zung ‘jug Vajradhara. In this early work, Ngor chen grapples with the relationship between the path of perfections and of secret mantra as conduits to liberation. I illuminate the ways in which ritual, exegesis, and pedagogy converge in Ngor chen’s text to reveal larger implications for distinguishing the eleventh and thirteenth grounds (bhūmi) of Buddhahood in fifteenth-century Tibet. In concluding, I highlight the art of differentiation as a fundamental Tibetan scholastic enterprise and briefly engage Ngor chen’s acts of distinguishing sūtra and tantra in conversation with those of key Tibetan predecessors and contemporaries.
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Harrington, Laura. "Crossing the great divide “tradition” and “modernity” in tibetan buddhist art." Material Religion 4, no. 1 (March 2008): 88–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175183408x288159.
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Wang, Miaoru. "Study on the Interior Soft Decoration Art of Buddhist Temple Hall in Tibetan Buddhist Temple Buildings." Open Journal of Social Sciences 08, no. 04 (2020): 284–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2020.84021.
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Bazarov, Boris V., Oleg S. Rinchinov, and Andrei A. Bazarov. "Цифровая трансформация письменного наследия тибетского буддизма: состояние и перспективы." Oriental studies 15, no. 4 (November 15, 2022): 740–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2022-61-4-740-750.
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Introduction. Making public knowledge pertaining to Buddhist culture proves important and topical enough due to the steady growth of global significance attributed to East and Central Asia. Therefore, insights into monuments of Buddhist heritage represented in vast collections of Russia — at advanced academic and technological levels with an emphasis on the active use of digital technologies — shall yield solutions to quite a number of sociocultural development problems, and strengthen positions of our nation in Asia’s geopolitical environments. Goals. The study aims at analyzing the current state of the art in digitization of Tibetan Buddhism’s written heritage and assessing some promising AI related technologies development trends. Materials and methods. The study provides a comparative analysis of activities by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC) consortium, an oldest and most successful initiatives operating since 1999, for advanced approaches in this field. The use of artificial intelligence methods to solve the problem of creating a machine-readable text corpus of Buddhist writings and machine translation is considered as a promising direction. Results. The work discloses key principles of digitization and representation of written monuments implemented on the new digital platform BUDA (Buddhist Digital Archives), shows effectiveness of the underlying IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) and LOD (Linked Open Data) architectures. The efforts to assess artificial intelligence technologies prospects included a pilot study on the use of ‘deep learning’ neural network methods to create an experimental model for optical recognition of Tibetan characters which yielded a result of 94 % of recognized characters. This lays a foundation for flow-line decoding of Tibetan-language scans and creating a comprehensive corpus of Buddhist writings in a machine-readable format, which offers the challenge of developing new efficient digital textual tools. Conclusions. The integration of existing and promising approaches allows for a digital transformation of Buddhist written traditions, the latter to open new functioning forms and development opportunities in the contemporary world backed with a possibility to reveal the cultural and intellectual potential of Buddhist civilization for modern society to the full.
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Bazarov, Boris V., Oleg S. Rinchinov, and Andrei A. Bazarov. "Цифровая трансформация письменного наследия тибетского буддизма: состояние и перспективы." Oriental studies 15, no. 4 (November 15, 2022): 740–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2022-62-4-740-750.
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Introduction. Making public knowledge pertaining to Buddhist culture proves important and topical enough due to the steady growth of global significance attributed to East and Central Asia. Therefore, insights into monuments of Buddhist heritage represented in vast collections of Russia — at advanced academic and technological levels with an emphasis on the active use of digital technologies — shall yield solutions to quite a number of sociocultural development problems, and strengthen positions of our nation in Asia’s geopolitical environments. Goals. The study aims at analyzing the current state of the art in digitization of Tibetan Buddhism’s written heritage and assessing some promising AI related technologies development trends. Materials and methods. The study provides a comparative analysis of activities by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC) consortium, an oldest and most successful initiatives operating since 1999, for advanced approaches in this field. The use of artificial intelligence methods to solve the problem of creating a machine-readable text corpus of Buddhist writings and machine translation is considered as a promising direction. Results. The work discloses key principles of digitization and representation of written monuments implemented on the new digital platform BUDA (Buddhist Digital Archives), shows effectiveness of the underlying IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) and LOD (Linked Open Data) architectures. The efforts to assess artificial intelligence technologies prospects included a pilot study on the use of ‘deep learning’ neural network methods to create an experimental model for optical recognition of Tibetan characters which yielded a result of 94 % of recognized characters. This lays a foundation for flow-line decoding of Tibetan-language scans and creating a comprehensive corpus of Buddhist writings in a machine-readable format, which offers the challenge of developing new efficient digital textual tools. Conclusions. The integration of existing and promising approaches allows for a digital transformation of Buddhist written traditions, the latter to open new functioning forms and development opportunities in the contemporary world backed with a possibility to reveal the cultural and intellectual potential of Buddhist civilization for modern society to the full.
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MORI, Masahide. "The Representation and Ritual of an Assembly Tree in Tibetan Buddhist Art." JOURNAL OF INDIAN AND BUDDHIST STUDIES (INDOGAKU BUKKYOGAKU KENKYU) 47, no. 1 (1998): 317–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4259/ibk.47.317.
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Nianchen, Ren. "METALLIC ARCHITECTURE OF CHINA IN LATE MIDDLE AGES: TYPOLOGY AND ARTISTRY." Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education, no. 4(72) (December 28, 2020): 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.47055/1990-4126-2020-4(72)-12.
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The article considers the use of copper-alloy and iron casting technology in China from the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD) to the Qing dynasty (1644–1912 AD) inclusive. The architectural typology covers cult buildings – Buddhist and Tibetan-Buddhist pagodas, Taoist temples, and secular park pavilions. The specifics of the technology and artistic expressiveness distinguishing Chinese metallic architectural structures are identified based on concrete examples using the formal stylistic method of art analysis and technical analysis method. It is concluded that the metallic architecture did not work out new structural and art forms, the casting technique reproducing the structures and décor of wooden prototypes. This was associated with both the conservatism of visual perception and centuries-long standardized forms of cult and palace architecture. The casting technology potentialities enabled the structural and decorative features of wooden prototypes to be reproduced in every detail.
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Nurova, Gerlya. "Museum of Kalmyk Scientific Center (RAS): Revisiting Some Buddhist Exhibits Associated with Je Tsongkhapa." Бюллетень Калмыцкого научного центра Российской академии наук 4, no. 20 (December 30, 2021): 72–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2587-6503-2021-4-20-72-93.
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Introduction. The Museum of Kalmyk Scientific Center (RAS) houses quite a number of sculptural and pictorial images associated with the tradition of Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419; Tibetan Buddhist scholar to have founded the Gelug that gained widest distribution among Mongolic peoples) and delivered by different donators or from as various places. Goals. The articles analyzes several pieces of Buddhist art contained in the Museum’s collections and somewhat tied to the historical personality. Results. The analysis of one ‘altar group’ compiled from three images — those of Tsongkhapa and his two disciples — shows that the tradition of Mongolia’s Dorbets that share common ancestry with contemporary Kalmyks depicts the imagery with greater detail and semantics as compared to similar survived Kalmyk samples. However, the insight into the Kalmyk tradition attests to that the people were widely worshipping the Buddhist Teacher — founder of the Gelug.
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Syrtypova, S. K. D. "Interpretation of the image of the Goddess Tara by Zanabazar compared to that by his predecesors and followers (from Sri Lanka to Siberia)." Orientalistica 3, no. 2 (May 31, 2020): 348–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.31696/2618-7043-2020-3-2-348-378.
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In continuation of the study of the art heritage of Zanabazar (1635–1723), we have traced the connection between the textual and art systems of the Buddhist cult ofTaragoddess. This goddess was of particular importance for the master Zanabazar. In his turn, Zanabazar was recognized as the incarnation of the great Tibetan scholar Jetsun Taranatha (1575–1634), whose name means “Protected byTara”. Undur-Gegen Zanabazar had deep spiritual relationship with the Savior Goddess both from his previous incarnations as well as directly transmitted by his teachers, especially the IV Panchen Lama Lobsan Choiky Gyaltsen (1570–1662). The article deals with outstanding sculptural images of Tara by Dzanabazar and also by the artists of earlier times and by the followers of his style who came fromSri Lanka,Nepal,Tibet,Mongolia, Buryatia. The actual objects are currently preserved in various collections throughout the world. Among them that of the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan and the Rudin Museums in the United States, the Potala in Lhasa, the State Hermitage and the Russian Ethnographical Museum in St. Petersburg and Mongolian museums of Ulaanbaatar. Specific examples show how the canonical Buddhist standards of iconography were implemented under the influence of different regional ethnic craft traditions. The works by famous Buddhist artists, such as Sonam Gyaltsen (16th cent.), Choiing Dorje (1604–1664) as well as little-known Buryat masters of the late 19th century were used to compare with the masterpieces by Zanabazar.
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Grela, Joanna. "Avalokiteśvara in Tibetan Buddhist art of the Later spread (Tib. phyi dar) of the Dharma. Image classification proposal, part 1." Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture New Series, no. 12 (2/2020) (2020): 27–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.4467/24506249pj.20.007.13446.
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According to traditional Buddhist narratives and popular beliefs, Tibetans are a people chosen by Avalokiteśvara. Therefore, his worship and multitude, as well as diversity of his images are quite common both in temples and public areas. Unlike the widespread analyses where the Bodhisattva has been treated as a peaceful tutelary deity, and classifications of its images have been based on morphological features (i.e. the number of hands, heads, etc.) or by artistic styles and techniques. This paper proposes another approach by grounding images in Tantric Buddhism models used locally. In the first part of the article, the images of Avalokiteshvara are inscribed in the bodyspeech-mind models as well as the external, secret and the first of the three internal aspects of the Three Refuges, also known as the Three Jewels, which covers a much wider set of iconographic material than usually considered.
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Tyulina, E. V. "LXI George Roerich Annual International Meeting (Text and cultural space: Ancient and Medieval India and Central Asia)." Orientalistica 5, no. 2 (June 29, 2022): 412–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.31696/2618-7043-2022-5-2-412-430.
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The article offers a review of the George Roerich Annual International Meeting, an annual conference in which researchers traditionally participate, continuing the main directions of scientific activity of George Roerich (russ.: Yurii Nikolaevich Rerikh, 1902-1960). In 2021, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian Tibetologist Yuri Mikhailovich Parfionovich (1921-1990) was celebrated, and the conference was dedicated to his memory. It began with the memorial part, in which the speakers shared their memories of Y.M. Parfionovich and told about his role in the study of the Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhist texts. The contributions of the main part of the conference were studies of Tibet, India and Central Asia. They covered several areas of humanitarian knowledge: philology, linguistics, history, art history, philosophy, religious studies. All of them were united by a common theme "Text and cultural space. Ancient and medieval India and Central Asia" and in one way or another were associated with the study of the worldview and cultural interactions of the studied regions.
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Linrothe, Rob. "Hidden in Plain Sight." Archives of Asian Art 70, no. 2 (October 1, 2020): 225–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00666637-8620384.
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Abstract This is a review article of Janet Gyatso's 2015 award-winning book, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet. The art-historical aspects of the book—mainly confined to the first chapter, “Reading Paintings, Painting the Medical, Medicalizing the State” and based on a perceptive art-historical reading of a set of medical paintings and its copies—had yet to be reviewed by an academically-trained art historian. This review underscores the fine art-historical insights deserving the attention of art historians working in parallel contexts of the often tense relationship between religious and empirical epistemologies. At the same time, the evaluation of certain readings of the visual record lead to suggested revisions in the support they provide to Gyatso's primary argument. In addition, other precedents of depictions “from life” in Tibetan art history are offered to help contextualize claims of originality or uniqueness. Finally, an analysis is presented of less formal, freehand painting versus more formalized, iconometric execution, calibrated with vernacular subject matter versus iconographically predetermined themes. Both of the painting modes and subject types are combined in the painting set analyzed by Gyatso supporting her assessment of the innovation of the artists selected by the patron, Desi Sangyé Gyatso (1653–1705).
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Richardson, Sarah. "When Walls Could Talk." Archives of Asian Art 71, no. 2 (October 1, 2021): 243–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00666637-9302528.
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Abstract How can visual texts, closed books, and painted images work together in Buddhist temples to reinforce one another and act upon viewers? The fourteenth-century murals at the Tibetan temple of Shalu integrate pictures with long passages of Tibetan texts and select inscriptions that explain the powers of seeing paintings. The murals combine and mix media—books, paintings, cloth—into expressive wholes that ultimately argue that walls are in fact much more than walls. The paintings find ways to make the temple's book collections more accessible. Here we find a public art effort that weaves together a compelling argument for why religious texts and religious art both “work” for and on their audiences. Shalu was a grandly expanded temple showing off its resources and its connections in a broader cosmopolitan sphere of production and exchange. Its walls were designed to weave media together, finding ways to celebrate and explain larger and newer corporate productions (book projects, larger monasteries). An intentional play of materiality (clay, cloth, book) emphasized by the inscriptions and performed in the pictorial compositions assists in the imaginative act of directly seeing deities, while also playing with the awareness that acts of imagination entail the play of just-like/seeing-as. Since neither clay nor cloth nor word on their own are adequate vessels for representing an enlightened being, here they collaborate with each other and with viewers in the imaginative act, promising that the deity, like the teachings, can be directly experienced.
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Elikhina, Yuliia I. "The Dunhuang and Yulin cave museum complexes." Issues of Museology 12, no. 2 (2021): 296–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.21638/spbu27.2021.212.
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The article examines the caves of Dunhuang and Yulin — world famous Buddhist complexes. The tradition of cave temples with wall paintings and sculpture came from India. The Dunhuang and Yulin caves were decorated in this manner. The highest peak in the development of Dunhuang art falls on the period of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it was at this time that numerous murals appeared depicting the Pure Land of Buddha Amitabha, the Lord of the West, where the souls of the righteous dwell, the Pure Land of Buddha of healing Bhaishajyaguru and other subjects. The main source for the creation of works of art in Dunhuang was Chinese Buddhism, which was formed under the influence of local cults and beliefs and was reflected in the sutras. A certain influence on the painting of Dunhuang was exerted by the art of the cave complexes of the Great Silk Road, and later by the artistic and iconographic traditions of the Tanguts and Mongols. The findings from Dunhuang in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum includes three hundred items. In 1914–1915, the Second Russian Turkestan Expedition under the leadership of academician S. F. Oldenburg worked there and brought these artifacts back. In addition, the expedition acquired a large number of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Chinese, Uyghur, Sogdian, Tibetan and Tangut. Currently, these priceless monuments are kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in St. Petersburg. The Dunhuang and Yulin cave complexes are a monument of world culture in terms of their size, quantity and quality of paintings, as well as in the variety of subjects, which constitute an encyclopedia of Buddhism in pictorial and sculptural images.
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Kim, Kyung-mi. "The Study on the Style and Value of Stone Buddha Statue of Hoeamsa Temple in Yangju." Korean Journal of Art History 312 (December 31, 2021): 109–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.31065/kjah.312.202112.004.
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This study focus on the characteristics and of the Fragment of Stone Buddha of Hoeamsa Temple(檜巖寺). As is well known, this temple had been developed rebuilding by supporting of the royal family from the late of Korea Dynasty to the early of Joseon Dynasty(朝鮮). The Hoeamsa Temple Site in Yangju(陽州) is believed to have been destroyed in a fire in the late 16th century, and various artifacts have been excavated after several excavations since 1999. This Temple has been excavated a variety of Fragment of Stone Buddha statues. The Buddha statue of Hoeamsa Temple in Yangju has a hole on top of high usnisa(肉髻), and special folds in the left arm and a thick clothing style. It was reflects the sculptural Joseon style modified by the Tibet-Chinese style. This style is very similar to that of Buddha statues produced in the 15th century, supported by the royal family of Joseon. In particular, these statues were believed to have been produced around the first half of the 15th century when the temple was heavily fortified with the support of Prince Hyo-ryeong(孝寧大君). It is also interesting to note that these statues show the sculptural features of the early Joseon Dynasty, reflecting the Tibetan-Chinese sculptures style, compared to those of the Buddhist sculptures in the first half of the 15th century during the year of Yeongrak (1403~1424) and Seondeok (1426~1435), the kings of the Ming Dynasty. This reflects the development of Buddhist sculptures in the early Joseon Dynasty in line with the trend of Buddhist art in East Asia.
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Huntington, Eric. "Himalayan Cosmologies of Offering: A Comparison of Newar and Tibetan Buddhist Treasure Maṇḍalas in Practice and Art." South Asian Studies 34, no. 2 (July 3, 2018): 154–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2018.1514956.
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Renard, John. "Black Robe White Mist: The Art of the Japanese Buddhist Nun Rengetsu Eclectic Collecting: Art from Burma in the Denison Museum Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India." Religion and the Arts 13, no. 4 (2009): 618–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/107992609x12524941450442.
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Pupysheva, Natalia Valentinovna, and Vitalii Vasil'evich Boronoev. "Pulse diagnosis in the Tibetan medical tradition: the experience of objectification of basic principles of pulse diagnosis using a pulse diagnostic device." Человек и культура, no. 6 (June 2020): 35–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.25136/2409-8744.2020.6.34260.
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This article describes the experience of objectification of basic characteristics of pulse waves in pulse diagnosis based on Tibetan medical tradition. A competent therapist – expert in Tibetan pulse diagnosis can assess functionality of the body (twelve internal organs and three psychophysiological systems) by feeling the pulse in six points of palpation located on the radial arteries of both wrists of the patient. The goal of this research consists in “teaching” pulse diagnostic device to recognize the diagnostically relevant characteristics of pulse waves. The article represents an attempt of objectification of the fundamentals of pulse diagnosis. Although pulse diagnosis has always been a subjective art of the talented therapist, its basic knowledge can become part of objective science as it is based on the real physical phenomena. The author describes the method of measuring pulse rate using a pulse diagnostic device in the conditions that create certain predictable responses of the body to an exogenous irritant, which in this case contributes to calming the rlung (wind) system. The experiment involved a group of volunteers. The conclusion is made that similar experiments provide material for the analysis of pulse waves acquired under specifically arranged conditions, which promotes the development of software fort the pulse diagnostic device, and proves that the objectification of fundamentals of pulse diagnosis in the Tibetan medicine is possible, although on a limited basis. The novelty is defined by the fact that the research based on the material of Tibetan medical tradition have not been previously conducted. The work consists of the three parts: first part is an extensive introduction that provides records on Buddhist medicine and pulse diagnosis, which help to understand the essence of the experiments; second part is dedicated to the experimental measurements of pulse rate using pulse diagnostic device; and third part represents the conclusions drawn from the conducted experiments.
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Sinclair, Tara. "Tibetan Reform and the Kalmyk Revival of Buddhism." Inner Asia 10, no. 2 (2008): 241–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/000000008793066713.
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AbstractThe anti-religious campaigns of the Soviet Union in the 1930s eradicated Kalmyk Buddhism from the public sphere. Following perestroika the Kalmyks retain a sense of being an essentially Buddhist people. Accordingly, the new Kalmyk government is reviving the religion with the building of temples and the attempted training of Kalmyk monks, yet monasticism is proving too alien for young post-soviets. According to traditional Kalmyk Gelug Buddhism authoritative Buddhist teachers must be monks, so monastic Tibetans from India have been invited to the republic to help revive Buddhism. The subsequent labelling by these monks of 'surviving' Kalmyk Buddhist practices as superstitious, mistaken or corrupt is an initial step in the purification of alternate views, leading to religious reform. This appraisal of historical practices is encouraged by younger Kalmyks who do not find sense in surviving Buddhism but are enthused with the philosophical approach taught by visiting Buddhist teachers at Dharma centres. By discussing this post-Soviet shift in local notions of religious efficacy, I show how the social movements of both reform and revival arise as collusion between contemporary Tibetan and Kalmyk views on the nature of true Buddhism.
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Schobesberger, David, Karel Kriz, and Markus Breier. "Design and Production of the Himachal Pradesh Topographic Overview Map, 1:500,000." Cartographic Perspectives, no. 67 (September 1, 2010): 43–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.14714/cp67.113.
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This article describes the design of a map of the Indian state Himachal Pradesh at the scale of 1:500,000. The aim of this foldable map with topography is to support an interdisciplinary research network focusing on the cultural history of the western Himalayas starting in the eighth century. In this research network, cartography and geography fulfill a mediating role between the disciplines of art history, numismatics, Buddhist philosophy, and Tibetan and Sanskrit philology. The map’s goal is to facilitate scientific work and interdisciplinary collaboration both in the office and out in the field. In addition to the printed version, the map is available for download to the general public through a Web-based cartographic information system. Topographic data was compiled from a variety of sources—starting with maps originally surveyed by the colonial British and ending with satellite imagery. Production involved ArcGIS and Natural Scene Designer for initial data preparation and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for final map compilation.
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Roberts, June Gersten. "The Flourishing Folds." Dance, Movement & Spiritualities 6, no. 1-2 (July 1, 2020): 155–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/dmas_00008_1.
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The Flourishing Folds is a solo video-art project, which re-negotiates the author’s relationship with ageing through creating intimate skin-portraits in near-touch close-up. The article reflects on these processes of re-possessing and re-purposing images of ageing skin and shares affirming experiences of embodied, sensory-perceptual video making. Tibetan Buddhist meditation practices inform the project and the article shares reflective writing on deep body meditations that dwell in locations where creasing skin offers pockets for holding spiritual humility and where folds form valleys that map sacred sites of vulnerability, self-acceptance and self-esteem. Writings by Stephen Connor, Claudia Benthien and Michel Serres illuminate the text with reflections on skin and embodied consciousness. New paradigms for dancing into maturity and the visual artwork of Helen Chadwick, Pipilotti Rist, Marna Clarke and Faith Wilding inform the project. The article writes into locales where creasing skin may increase skin-on-skin contact and offer sites of sensual, sensed soul, consciousness.
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Heroldová, Helena. "De-Contextualisation or Re-Contextualisation: Tibetan Buddhism in the Náprstek Museum." Annals of the Náprstek Museum 38, no. 2 (November 1, 2017): 31–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/anpm-2017-0028.
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AbstractThe study based on the preparation ofPříběh Tibetu[The Story of Tibet] exhibition in the Náprstek Museum focuses on the de-contextualisation of Tibetan Buddhism objects in the museum setting. It deals with the stages of the decontextualisation process from the removing of the original material environment and social context to creation of new meanings in the museum. Namely it discusses aestheticisation and its relation to the art-gallery style exhibition.
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Andreyev, Alexander. "Russian Buddhists in Tibet, from the end of the nineteenth century – 1930." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 11, no. 3 (October 29, 2001): 349–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1356186301000323.
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AbstractThe article offers a survey of religious contacts maintained between Tibet and Russian Buddhists, the ethnic Buryats and Kalmyks, from the late 19th C. to the 1930s. Chronologically, the story falls into two parts, the dividing point being the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. The focus in the first portion is on the Russian Buddhist colony in Lhasa centred around the Gomang Datsang (school) of the Drepung monastery, its emergence and growth in the early 20th C., in the wake of Russo-Tibetan rapprochement brought about by a Buryat scholar-monk and adviser of the 13th Dalai Lama, Agvan Dorjiev. The tsarist government tried to use their Buddhist connection with Lhasa to political ends – in January 1904, shortly after the beginning of the British military invasion of Tibet, they sent a secret Kalmyk reconnaissance mission to Lhasa under a Cossack subaltern, Naran Ulanov, assisted by a cleric (bakshi) Dambo Ulianov. The latter part of the article concentrates on the dramatic post-revolutionary period. It begins with the story of the Kalmyk refugees in Turkey and their abortive attempt to emigrate to Tibet. There's also a detailed discussion of the endeavours by Soviet leaders to win the Dalai Lama over, by employing the loyal Buryats and Kalmyks for their secret missions to the Potala. The key figures behind this scheme were the Soviet foreign minister, G. V. Chicherin, and the same Agvan Dorjiev, posing as the Dalai Lama's representative in the USSR. As a result of the Bolshevik propaganda, many of the Buryat and Kalmyk residents in Lhasa began to return to their homeland in the 1920s. The crackdown on Buddhism in Soviet Russia put an end to the Moscow–Lhasa political dialogue. Hence all connections between the Buryat and Kalmyk Buddhists and their religious “Mecca” were deliberately cut by the Soviet authorities by 1930.
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BAZIN, NATHALIE. "Fragrant Ritual Offerings in the Art of Tibetan Buddhism." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 23, no. 1 (January 2013): 31–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1356186312000697.
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Buddhism, first officially adopted by Tibetan royalty in the seventh century, remained confined to court circles and was not widely accepted during the reign of the Tibetan kings between the seventh and ninth centuries. After a dark period of persecution during the late imperial period, the so-called “Second Diffusion” of Buddhism in Tibet began towards the end of the tenth century.
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Zhabon, Yumzhana Zh. "История монастыря Ганден." Монголоведение (Монгол судлал) 14, no. 3 (December 27, 2022): 450–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2500-1523-2022-3-450-458.
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Introduction. The article summarizes the history of one of the three largest monasteries of the Tibetan Geluk school — Ganden Monastery. The latter tradition of Tibetan Buddhism occupies an exceptional place in the history of Mongolic spiritual cultures. Therefore, the interest in Ganden monastery is determined not only by that it had been founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), the patriarch of the Geluk and a greatest Buddhist figure in Tibet, but also by the enormous religious, cultural and political impacts this sect has had on the development and dissemination of Buddhism among Mongolian-speaking peoples. Goals. The article seeks to investigate the history of Ganden Monastery in the context of its basic organizational structure, material culture (relics, shrines), paradigm of scholastic training (texts, educational process), and specific Buddhist rituals. Materials and methods. The work examines original Tibetan texts, analyzes historical sources and special scientific literature. Results. The article shows that the central principles of scholastic training and regulations laid down by Lama Tsongkhapa, as well as the organizational structure of the monastery, have remained virtually unchanged since its foundation in 1409. The phenomenon of Tibetan monasteries is multifaceted, and in order to better understand and appreciate the role they have played over centuries in spiritual life of many peoples it is necessary to achieve a complete understanding — in their own terms — of history, educational system, and organizational structure of the monastery.
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Sherburne, Richard, and David Snellgrove. "Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors." Journal of the American Oriental Society 109, no. 1 (January 1989): 153. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/604377.
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Dunaeva, Ekaterina. "The History of One Personal Copy: Esper E. Ukhtomsky (1861–1821) — His life, His Buddhist Collection, and the Study of Buddhism in Russia." Oriental Courier, no. 4 (2022): 91. http://dx.doi.org/10.18254/s268684310023804-2.
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The article focuses on the contribution of Esper E. Ukhtomsky, an outstanding collector of Buddhist sculpture and painting in pre-revolutionary Russia, to the study of Buddhist art. In addition to the main episodes of the biography, little covered earlier in research, the author examines how Ukhtomsky, who had the largest private Buddhist collection in the Russian Empire, contributed to the study of Buddhist art and collaborated with Albert Grunwedel, to whom he provided part of his collection, resulting in the famous Grunwedel’s work “The Mythology of Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia”. Ukhtomsky himself published pamphlets in which he contributed to the clarification and understanding of Buddhism and the East by the reading public. In 1890–1891 Ukhtomsky was one of the retinues that accompanied the future Emperor Nicholas II, his brother and the Greek Prince on a journey to the East. It was Ukhtomsky who had the honor to write a trip report — “Journey to the East of His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Heir Tsesarevich” in three volumes. The article shows how Ukhtomsky worked with Asian material on the example of the book by Archbishop Nilus “Buddhism, Considered in Relation to Its Followers Living in Siberia” (1858), where Ukhtomsky left numerous marginalia. In his marginal notes, the author translated Mongolian terms into Russian, quoted major authors of Buddhist studies, and left his own reflections on what Archbishop Nilus, who was engaged in missionary activity in Siberia, managed to learn and understand.
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Lepekhov, Sergey. "THE CONCEPTION OF ILLUSIONARY EXISTENCE IN THE «RATNA-GUNA-SAMCAYA-GĀTHĀ»." Culture of Central Asia: written sources 13 (December 16, 2020): 3–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.30792/2304-1838-2020-13-3-31.
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The main subject of this paper are the possible ways of forming the concept of illusion (māyopamavada) in the philosophy of Madhyamaka. A special place in this process is occupied by the early prajñāpāramitā sutras. One of the objects of research is the prajñāpāramitā Sutra “Ratna-guna-samcaya-gāthā” (“Prajñāpāramitā in Verses about the Accumulation of Precious Qualities”). Due to the Prajñāpāramitā texts, the Buddhist idea of the illusionary existence became an essential part of the far Eastern culture and art. On the example of “Ratna-guna-samcaya-gāthā”, we can see the dynamics of the concept of “illusory world” how it was formed in the Prajñāpāramitā texts. As an example of further development of the concept and its application to the philosophical ideas of Madhyamaka, are used individual texts of Nāgārjuna (“Ratnāvalī”, “Yuktiṣāṣṭika”, “Lokātīta-stava”). Some variants of the issues of reference and designation (namely, the need to correlate the reference, denotate and designate with the object, and in turn, with the localization of the intensional, i.e., the meaning of the concept and the extensional one) are compared as in modern logic and the solutions, proposed by madhyamikas. The new approach to the study of Madhyamaka as a “philosophy of language” suggests very promising opportunities for study of both logical and philosophical heritage of Nāgārjuna and its connection with the entire previous prajñāpāramitā tradition. The Appendix contains a translation of the seven final chapters (XXVI–XXXII) of “Ratna-guna-samcaya-gāthā” from Sanskrit and Tibetan into Russian.
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Sharaeva, Tatyana I. "Особенности иконографии в калмыцкой вышивке: традиционные и современные практики." Oriental Studies 14, no. 2 (July 20, 2021): 314–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2021-54-2-314-336.
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Introduction. The Kalmyks are a Mongolic Buddhist people that arrived in the Volga region in the 17th century. The specific ethnic features of Buddhism professed by the Kalmyks took shape over centuries of Russian suzerainty and were determined by various historical factors, including prolonged remoteness from Buddhist centers, the total eradication of Buddhist monasteries and centuries-long ban on spiritual guidance experienced in the 20th century, and the official Buddhist restoration by the early 21st century. Goals. The work aims at identifying and comparing traditional and contemporary Buddhist thangka patterns as elements to mirror particular features of Kalmyk iconography, as essential objects of religious cult and cultural heritage at large. Results. The paper shows that in the pre-20th century period Kalmyks used different techniques for producing thangkas — painting, embroidery, and applique ones. In the late 18th century onwards, imports of religious attributes from Tibet and Mongolia were restricted, and the role of art workshops affiliated to local Buddhist temples increased. That resulted in further development of thangka painting schools and the shaping of somewhat ethnic style in depicting Buddhist deities characterized by certain differences from canonical images. The old thangkas from private and public collections have served a basis for the restoration of ethnic painting traditions integral to Kalmykia’s Buddhism proper. The contemporary practices of producing divine images are closely related to stages in the regional development of Buddhism from the late 20th century to the present, lay Buddhist experiences, women’s leisure-time activities, and ethnic entrepreneurship. The study concludes contemporary Kalmyk needlewomen are guided by traditional rules of religious craftsmanship.
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Mikles, Natasha L., and Joseph P. Laycock. "Tracking the Tulpa." Nova Religio 19, no. 1 (August 1, 2015): 87–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.87.
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Since the 1970s, tulpas have been a feature of Western paranormal lore. In contemporary paranormal discourse, a tulpa is a being that begins in the imagination but acquires a tangible reality and sentience. Tulpas are created either through a deliberate act of individual will or unintentionally from the thoughts of numerous people. The tulpa was first described by Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) in Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1929) and is still regarded as a Tibetan concept. However, the idea of the tulpa is more indebted to Theosophy than to Tibetan Buddhism. This article explores the murky origins of the tulpa to show how the concept emerged from a dialogue between East and West in which Theosophical metaphysics were combined with terms adapted from Tibetan Buddhism.
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Sullivan, Brenton. "The Manner in which I went to Worship Mañjuśrī’s Realm, The Five-Peaked Mountain (Wutai), by Sumba Kanbo (1704–1788)." Inner Asia 20, no. 1 (April 16, 2018): 64–106. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22105018-12340099.
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Abstract This essay provides a translation of the travelogue of the eminent Oirat Buddhist lama Sumba Kanbo Yeshe Baljor (1704–1788) as he made his way to the sacred Mount Wutai. Among the many details this candid account reveals is the fact that Buddhists from the Tibetan Plateau did not travel to the sacred mountain of Wutai in China for the sake of pilgrimage, but in order to foster established relationships with Mongol patrons along the way. Sumba Kanbo spent seven months on the road in 1774 en route to Wutai (compared with only one month at the mountain itself), and during that time he was received by Mongol nobility for whom, in exchange, he contributed to the creation of ‘surrogate’ pilgrimage sites in Mongolia and more generally to the ‘Buddicisation’ of Mongolia. Sumba Kanbo’s account provides a unique window into the emergence of Buddhism in Mongolia and the manner in which this phenomenon depended upon both the political and religious bonds formed between lamas such as Sumba Kanbo and Mongol nobility, commoners and landscape that these lamas encountered on their peregrinations.
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Vanchikova, Tsymzhit P., and Nomin D. Tsyrenova. "К истории монастыря Гандантегченлин." Монголоведение (Монгол судлал) 14, no. 2 (August 10, 2022): 393–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2500-1523-2022-2-393-404.
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Introduction. The article summarizes the history of the Gandantegchinlen Monastery (Mongolia). Goals. It aims at revealing the latter’s place and role in the history of Buddhism nationwide. Insights into the history and functioning structures of the Gandantegchinlen Monastery reveal certain historical links between Buddhist centers of Mongolia and Buryatia. Being a stronghold of Buddhist education, Gandantegchenlin has made (and still does) its essential impacts on the shaping and development of religious and philosophical educational systems among Mongolic peoples — and contributed to the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhist culture. Methods. The study employs tools of factor analysis (characterizing the place and role in historical reality), the historical/genetic and retrospective research methods. Results. The retrospective analysis reveals key stages in the development of the monastery — from its earliest activities, closure, and restoration in the 1940s–1960s to present days witnessing a gradual revival of Buddhist traditions in Russia and Mongolia.
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Bingaman, Eveline. "Measures and Countermeasures." Inner Asia 23, no. 1 (May 26, 2021): 51–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22105018-12340162.
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Abstract The ethnography of kinship and marriage in Tibetan communities demonstrates a broad diversity and flexibility of practices. In examining these variations across both ethnographic Tibet and its borderlands, studies have yet to explore fully the processes through which Tibetan Buddhist polities have played an active role in shaping families through governance structures and state policies. Monk levies (T. grwa khral or btsun khral) are a form of monastic recruitment requiring a taxable unit to provide sons to fill monastery quotas. The practice has obvious consequences for kinship and marriage practices as families choose either to comply with or to evade the levy. The Muli Kingdom was a Tibetan Buddhist polity of the Gelug School that governed an ethnically diverse area in southern Kham. This study takes a historical approach to explore Muli Monastery’s monk levy from the perspective of one non-Tibetan community. In doing so, it highlights the connection between family organisation and state governance structures, revealing kinship practices as one mechanism through which local populations negotiated within limitations set by the state.
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Jabb, Lama. "THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PAST IN THE CREATIVITY OF THE PRESENT:MODERN TIBETAN LITERATURE AND SOCIAL CHANGE." International Journal of Asian Studies 8, no. 1 (January 2011): 89–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s147959141000029x.
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Thus sings Sangdhor in a metrical poem in praise of Tibetan versification, countering an anti-verse sentiment that is prevalent on the contemporary Tibetan literary scene. Since the flourishing of free verse form in the 1980s, thanks to the pioneering works of Dhondup Gyal, many Tibetan writers have attacked metrical composition for its perceived inflexible, archaic and inadaptable form and uniformity of content. Sangdhor, one of the most iconoclastic and forward-thinking intellectuals writing in Tibetan today, vehemently refutes such a stance on the grounds that the bulk of great Tibetan works, literary or otherwise, are set in verse. To underscore his point he writes the cited poem in a “leaping and flying” style of themgur(‘poem-songs’) genre. In fact, most of his many innovative poems are written in an eclectic style drawing on Tibet's rich literary tradition, Buddhist texts, oral sources and contemporary writings. Their content is equally diverse yet most of all current. It is infused with social and religious criticism, themes of romance and eroticism, critical literary commentary and current Tibetan affairs. His poems, like those of many other writers, show that metered poetry is very much a part of modern Tibetan literature. As he draws on classical literature and indigenous oral traditions for his own literary innovation, to borrow a concept from Northrop Frye, in Sangdhor's work we can “see an enormous number of converging patterns of significance” that is a complication of Tibetan literary formulas stretching to the narratives of the distant past.2Therefore, it must be borne in mind that modern Tibetan literature transcends a theory of rupture which many scholars overstress to the point of overlooking its deep, outspread roots. Some parts of these roots predate both the 1980s, which saw a flourishing of new Tibetan writing, and the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s that has had a profound impact on Tibetan cultural production.
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SULLIVAN, BRENTON. "The Qing Regulation of the Sangha in Amdo." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 30, no. 4 (August 20, 2020): 737–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1356186320000255.
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AbstractThe political reforms made along the Gansu-Kökenuur border in the aftermath of the Lubsang-Danzin Rebellion (1723-4) represented the first significant change to that frontier to occur in centuries. Only recently have scholars begun to consider the repercussions of these changes for the powerful religious institutions of this region known as Amdo. This article utilises Chinese histories, Tibetan-language materials and Chinese-language land deeds from the eighteenth century to illustrate the drastic increase in imperial oversight and regulation of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and monastics in Amdo, especially those of the Xining River watershed. Significantly, the policies and practices directed toward these monasteries and monastics were those traditionally employed for Chinese Buddhists of the empire's interior. In addition, the reforms introduced in the Xining region helped to set the tone and precedents for how the Qing would later engage with monasteries and monastics elsewhere in Amdo.
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Fitzgerald, Kati. "Preliminary Practices: Bloody Knees, Calloused Palms, and the Transformative Nature of Women’s Labor." Religions 11, no. 12 (November 26, 2020): 636. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel11120636.
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In this article, I explore the prostration accumulation portion of the Preliminary Practices of a specific group of Tibetan Buddhist women in Bongwa Mayma, a rural area of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. I focus specifically on the nuns and lay women who utilize this set of teachings and practices. The Preliminary Practices not only initiate practitioners into a specific tradition (that of the Drikung Kagyu and more specifically the Amitabha practices of this lineage), but also more fundamentally into Vajrayāna Buddhism as it is practiced in contemporary Tibet. Although monks and male lay practitioners in this region also tend to perform the same Preliminary Practices, I focus specifically on women because of their unique relationship with bodily labor. I begin this article with a discussion of the domestic and economic labor practices of contemporary Tibetan women in rural Yushu, followed by an analysis of Preliminary Practices as understood through the Preliminary Practice text and oral commentaries utilized by all interviewees and interviews (collected from 2016–2020) with female practitioners about their motivations, experiences, and realizations during the Refuge and prostration accumulation portion of their Preliminary Practices. Women themselves view bodily labor as a productive and inevitable aspect of life. On the one hand, women state openly that their domestic duties impede upon their ability to achieve religious realization. On the other, they frequently extol the virtues of hard work, perseverance, patience, and fortitude that their lives of labor helped them to cultivate. Prostration is meant to embody the act of going for Refuge, of submitting oneself to the teachings of the Buddha, to the path of the dharma, and to the community of religious practitioners with whom they will study and grow. Prostrations are meant to embody the extreme difficulty of Refuge, to remove obscurations, to crush the ego, and to confirm a dedication to endure the hardships on the path to realization. Buddhist women, despite their ambiguous relationship with physical labor, see the physical pain of this process as a transformative experience that allows them a glimpse of the spaciousness of mind and freedom from attachment-filled desire promised in the teachings they receive.
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Lopez, Donald S. "“Lamaism” and the Disappearance of Tibet." Comparative Studies in Society and History 38, no. 1 (January 1996): 3–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500020107.
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At an exhibition in 1992 at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., “Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration,” one room among the four devoted to Ming China was called “Lamaist Art.” In the coffee-table book produced for the exhibition, with reproductions and descriptions of over 1,100 of the works displayed, however, not one painting, sculpture, or artifact was described as being of Tibetan origin. In commenting upon one of the Ming paintings, the well-known Asian art historian, Sherman E. Lee, wrote, “The individual [Tang and Song] motifs, however, were woven into a thicket of obsessive design produced for a non-Chinese audience. Here the aesthetic wealth of China was placed at the service of the complicated theology of Tibet.” This complicated theology is named by Lee with the term “Lamaism,” an abstract noun that does not occur in the Tibetan language but which has a long history in the West, a history inextricable from the ideology of exploration and discovery that the National Gallery cautiously sought to celebrate. Lee echoes the nineteenth-century portrayal of Lamaism as something monstrous, a composite of unnatural lineage, devoid of the spirit of original Buddhism (as constructed by European Orientialists). Lamaism was a deformity unique to Tibet, its parentage denied by India (in the voice of British Indologists) and by China (in the voice of the Qing empire), an aberration so unique in fact that it would eventually float free from its Tibetan abode, an abode that would vanish.
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GONKATSANG, TSERING, and MICHAEL WILLIS. "The Ra Mo Che Temple, Lhasa, and the Image of Mi bsKyod rDo rJe: The Narrative of Ri ‘Bur sPrul sKu." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 19, no. 1 (January 2009): 41–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1356186308009097.
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Although practicing Buddhists and historians of Tibet are well aware of the Ra Mo Che Temple in Lhasa, very little about the building and its history has been published. Situated a short distance north-west of the more-famous Ra Sa gTsug Lag Khang or Jo Khang, the temple received, according to the dBa' bZhed, the Buddha image brought to Tibet in the time of the Tang princess Ong Jo. Early in the reign of Khri Srong lDe bTsan, while the king was still in his minority, anti-Buddhist factions led by Zhang Ma Zham Khrom Pa sKyes circumscribed royal power and murdered the pro-Buddhist minister Zhang sNa Nam Khri Thong rJe Thang la ‘Bar. They also arranged for the image at Ra Mo Che to be removed from the temple. The plan was to return the Buddha to China, along with the head priest and his entourage. The statue's great weight, however, thwarted the scheme. After being dragged a short distance, the Buddha was left half-buried in the earth. The state of affairs in those days is indicated by dBa' bZhed which reports that the Lhasa vihāra was turned into a workshop with sheep carcasses hung from the arms of the principal holy images and entrails wound round their necks! After Buddhism was reinstated, the Ra Mo Che was returned to worship. Subject to campaigns of refurbishment and additions through the centuries, it was the centre of a number of important developments, notably becoming the seat of the upper Tantric college (rGyud sTod) established by rJe bTsun Kun dGa' Don Drub in 1474.
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CUEVAS, BRYAN J. "Illustrations of Human Effigies in Tibetan Ritual Texts: With Remarks on Specific Anatomical Figures and Their Possible Iconographic Source." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 21, no. 1 (January 2011): 73–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1356186310000611.
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AbstractThe ritual use of objects and images designed to serve as effigies or surrogates of specific persons, animals or spirits is more or less universal across cultures and time. In Tibet, recent archaeological evidence attests to the use of illustrated effigies possibly dating from the eleventh century. Other early Tibetan images include anthropomorphic figures inscribed on animal skulls. The practical use of effigies in Tibetan ritual, both Buddhist and Bon-po, was almost certainly derived from much older Indian practices transmitted to Tibet. In this article illustrated effigies, their iconography and ritual use are discussed and the article concludes with the translation and transliteration of a short work by the fifteenth-century treasure revealer (gter-ston) and patron saint of Bhutan Padma-gling-pa (1450–1521), which gives instructions on how to draw a liṅga for a ritual of defence against human adversaries.
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Batmunkh, Mungunchimeg. "The Shugden-Controversy in Contemporary Mongolia." Inner Asia 23, no. 2 (November 18, 2021): 330–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22105018-12340177.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Since the political upheavals in Mongolia in 1989, the traditional Tibetan-Mongolian protective deity Dorj-Shugden has been rediscovered. Today the Buddhist monasteries Delgeriin khiid, Amarbayasgalant Monastery and Tögsbayasgalant töv venerate him. This paper analyses the role of this deity with particular emphasis on Gungaachoilinig datsan in Gandandegchilin and the Amarbayasgalant Monastery in Mongolia, based on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with monks from six monasteries and visitors of Amarbayasgalant conducted in 2016, 2019 and 2020. The paper also outlines the current state of research, including recent Mongolian literature. Finally, it presents findings about him sourced from social media. By exploring pro- and anti-Shugden religious practices, this article sheds some light on the Shugden controversy in contemporary Mongolian Buddhism.