Faith and Empire explores the dynamic intersection of politics, religion, and art in Tibetan Buddhism. At the heart of this dynamic is the force of religion to claim political power. Covering the Tibetan, Tangut, Mongolian, Chinese, and Manchu empires from the seventh to the early twentieth century, this volume illuminates how Tibetan Buddhism presented both a model of universal sacral kingship and a tantric ritual technology to physical power. Tibetans also used the mechanism of reincarnation as a means of succession, a unique form of political legitimacy that they brought to empires to the east. Images were a primary means of political propagation, integral to magical tantric rites and embodiments of power. Through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism's potent historic political role in Asia, Faith and Empire seeks to place Himalayan art in a larger global context and shed light on an important but little-known aspect of power in the Tibetan tradition.

Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Rubin Museum of Art

The Tenth Karmapa Choying Dorje (1604-1674) was not only leader of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism but also famous as a great artistic innovator. One of the most original and eccentric figures in the history of Tibetan art, he combined different compositional and figural models as well as styles, even mixing genres to create a very personal visual idiom full of charm, wit, and humor. A sensitive and playful depiction of animals is especially distinctive, making his works both intimate and directly accessible. The life of this artist is well documented in Tibetan sources, which provide an alternative historical narrative of the tumultuous seventeenth century as well as a new perspective on Tibetan art history.
The Black Hat Eccentric is the first publication to focus on works by the hand of a single Tibetan historical artist. The centerpiece is an inscribed set of paintings dated 1660 from Lijiang in southwestern China. Paintings from sets by the Karmapa's workshop form the other anchor for the project and demonstrate that teams of artists were trained in the Tenth Karmapa's fascinating and enigmatic style. Individual paintings and sculptures attributed to the Tenth Karmapa from collections worldwide are also considered and contextualized by these two aspects of his artistic production.

The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa

Debreczeny, Karl

Buddha in Paradise: A Celebration in Himalayan Art

Glenn H. & Stoddard Heather Mullin

The book contains the work of scholars esteemed in the field and in particular that of Tibetan-born scholar Samten G. Karmay, who has contributed a historical overview of Bon religion to the present volume. Jeff Watt, curator of the Rubin Museum of Art, does much in his essay to distinguish between Bon and Buddhist art, with which it is so often confused, and in doing so brings out its unique character. The other contributors look at specific topics within Bon, including its paintings, sacred geography and its foundation, in efforts to set its art and artefacts within their contexts. The purpose of this book is to enable the reader to appreciate the beauty of Bon art whilst, at the same time, gaining an understanding of the spirit of Bon from the time of its foundation through to the present day.About the authorsSamten G. Karmay is one of Tibet's foremost scholars. Karmay was born in Amdo Province and attended a local Bonpo monastery from the age of eight to fourteen. He then followed a three-year course of Dzogchen meditation at Kyangthang Monastery. At twenty he obtained the Geshey degree and took further studies at Drepung. In 1959 he and his family left Tibet and settled briefly in India. From 1961 to 1964 he was a visiting scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, where he earned an MPhil for his thesis on Bon history and then his PhD for his thesis on the origin and development of Dzogchen in Tibetan Buddhist traditions. In 1980 he entered the National Centre of Scientific Research, Paris, where he became the director of research in history and anthropology. In 1996 he was elected president of the International Association of Tibetan Studies. He has written a number of books on Tibetan religions, including a book on the fifth Dalai Lama.Jeff Watt is the senior curator at the Rubin Museum of Art and director of Himalayan Art Resource

Bon, the Magic Word: The Indiginous Religion of Tibet

Samten G. Karrmay

Jeff Watt

The University of Washington Press is pleased to distribute a series on Tibetan art from the Rubin Museum of Art, New York City. These volumes will share the history, style, and method of Tibetan art and will document a different constellation of style, religious tradition, period, and place. In studying the sacred arts of Tibet, scholars and collectors seldom know who the artist was, let alone what his life might have been like, where he went, and whom he met. Yet some is known about the life of the painter Situ Panchen Chokyi Junge and his revival of a great painting tradition. Born in January 1700 in Derge, he was identified as a Karma Kagyu trulku (an incarnate lama) and he studied with the great Karmapa lamas, in turn becoming a great teacher himself. He traveled widely, met with the military, political, and religious leaders of his time, and became renowned for his knowledge of medicine. The most important of Situ's many impressive accomplishments is his revival, as a painter and patron, of the Karma Gardri style of painting (also known as the Encampment style). It was established by the Tibetan painter Namkha Tashi in the court of the Ninth Karmapa (1555-1603). Namkha Tashi based his painted figures on Indian figural models but placed them in Chinese-inspired landscapes based on masterpieces of the Yuan and Ming courts. However, most of what is known of this tradition comes from the eighteenth-century school fostered by the great scholar-painter Situ Panchen. Even more important to the history of Tibetan art than Situ's place as an individual painter is his role as a patron and designer of paintings, many of which continue to be copied to this day. Patron and Painter focuses on the work of this important historical artist. His great stylistic tradition is considered by some to be a veritable rebirth of Tibetan painting. It is clear, precise, and spacious, with marked Chinese influence evident in the use of pastel colors and prominent stylized features of landscape. David P. Jackson has unlocked Situ's diaries and journals and mapped his journeys, putting some of his endeavors in the context of almost seven centuries of the Karma Kagyu school's history. Since 1994 more than a dozen major sets commissioned by Situ Panchen or his circle have been identified, and more continue to turn up, not only outside Tibet but also in Kham. This publication begins to visually tell the story of Situ's paintings. David P. Jackson is the author of A History of Tibetan Painting and a curator at the Rubin Museum of Art. Formerly professor of Tibetan at Hamburg University, he lives on Whidbey Island, Washington.

Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style (Masterworks of Tibetan Painting)

Jackson, David P.

Artful Beneficence

The Newar painting style (Beri) in Tibet, which originated in Nepal, is the most recent of two early Indian-inspired painting styles to take hold in Tibet. The style flourished in Tibet for about four centuries, from the late 12th to the early 17th century. Alone among styles, it was adopted universally across Tibet for a century at its height (1360-1460). Later in its development, some of the best-known thangkas in this style were commissioned by abbots of Ngor Monastery, an important Sakyapa monastery in Tsang Province. Most previous scholars linked the paintings in this style exclusively with the Sakyapa religious school and Tsang Province, if not with the monastery of Ngor. In addition to exploring the powerful aesthetic appeal of the Beri style, one of the main goals of this publication is to overcome the erroneous limiting of the style to the Sakyapa and to demonstrate its full historical and religious extent. Another main goal is to introduce a method for analyzing structure and lineages in Tibetan paintings.

The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting

P. David. Jackson

Hardcover book in dust jacket. Curated by Martin Brauen. Mary Jane Jacob. Rubin Museum of Art. 2010.

Grain of Emptiness: Buddhism-Inspired Contemporary Art

Mary Jane Jacob

In their art, Tibetans aimed at faithfully transmitting and preserving Buddhism as a spiritual discipline as they had learned it from earlier teachers. Each thangka painting was a small contribution to the larger cause of keeping Buddhism alive and radiant. In this third volume on Tibetan painting, David Jackson investigates painted portraits of early Tibetan teachers. Images of these eminent personages embodied Buddhist ideals in human form. In creating these depictions, Tibetan painters of the 12th through the 14th centuries imitated the artistic conventions developed in Pala- and Sensa-ruled eastern India (Bengal). This style, called Sharri, spread from India to many parts of Asia, but its classic Indian forms, delicate colors, and intricate decorative details were emulated most faithfully by the Tibetans.

Mirror of the Buddha: Early Portraits from Tibet (Masterworks of Tibetan Painting)

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Rubin Museum of Art publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rubin Museum of Art

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Rubin Museum of Art publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism

The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa

Buddha in Paradise: A Celebration in Himalayan Art

Bon, the Magic Word: The Indiginous Religion of Tibet

Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style (Masterworks of Tibetan Painting)

Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style (Masterworks of Tibetan Painting)

Artful Beneficence

The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting

Grain of Emptiness: Buddhism-Inspired Contemporary Art

Mirror of the Buddha: Early Portraits from Tibet (Masterworks of Tibetan Painting)