The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols is a portal into the rich, multifaceted, and profound symbolism of Tibetan sacred art. Robert Beer provides a deep and encompassing insight into the vast array of symbols and attributes that appear within the complex iconography of Tibetan Buddhism. The succinct descriptions that accompany his detailed line drawings reveal the origins, meanings, and functions of these symbols. Beer unravels the multiple layers of symbolism and meaning contained within the iconography, affording the reader a panoramic vision into the deeper dimensions of this sacred art.  Drawn largely from Beer's monumental work The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs,  the meticulous brush drawings in this book depict all of the major Buddhist symbols and motifs, including the various groups of auspicious symbols; cosmological symbols; natural and mythical animals, such as the dragon, garuda, and makara; the entire assembly of ritual tantric implements and weapons; magical and wrathful symbols; handheld emblems, attributes, and plants; esoteric Vajrayana offerings; and mudras, or ritual hand gestures.

Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols

Arts & Photography

Robert Beer

History & Criticism

Serindia Publications, Inc.

The urge to fly has transfixed human imagination with a steady, irresistible charm for millennia. This catalog presents Tibetan paintings that explore the theme of flying as a spiritual power. In Buddhist thought, flight is within our potential as human beings. With advanced spiritual development come supernatural powers such as flying, levitation, or the ability to walk through the sky as some walk on a mountain path. Indo-Tibetan literature is filled with accounts of the phenomena, and biographical accounts of the great lineage masters often includes a section on occasions when flying was called for. Similarly, Indo-Tibetan Buddhist artists frequently draw from flying anecdotes in their paintings and sculptural works. 
 Flying Mystics can perhaps be regarded as a preliminary adventure into this ancient and venerable history. Using Buddhist art and literature as its vehicles, it presents some of the greatest Tibetan masterpiece paintings depicting famous Buddhist masters of flight, and also draws from the biographies of the most famous Buddhist flyers over the ages.

The Flying Mystics of Tibetan Buddhism

Glenn H. Mullin

Some of the most important Tibetan Buddhist monuments to have survived the ravages of history are the temples and chapels at Gyantse in Southern Tibet. In a chapel on the upper floor of the Palkhor Tsuglagkhang there exist superb wall paintings of the legendary eighty-four mahasiddhas – tantric adepts who, through effort and practice, have attained perfection and are endowed with extraordinary powers. 
 These 15th-century images are the most splendid extant painted representations of mahasiddhas in Tibet, yet they have never been published as an entire cycle until now. This has largely been due to the exceedingly difficult task of identification. 
 Empowered Masters: Tibetan Wall Paintings of Mahasiddhas at Gyantse illustrates and describes these important murals. Each of the vivid masters is wonderfully presented; each has a name inscribed in Tibetan script. The stories of the mahasiddhas depict unorthodox, existential lives that encompass all of human experience, and provide insight into a wide range of tantric practice. This book introduces the monastic complex of Gyantse, then guides the reader through every wall painting of this magnificent chapel. Each mahasiddha image is illustrated in a full colour plate, with an accompanying description on the opposite page. The text briefly describes stylistic elements as well, and the introduction and appendices provide fascinating further information.

Empowered Masters: Tibetan Wall Paintings of Mahasiddhas at Gyantse

Ulrich VON SCHROEDER

Only a stone's throw away from the Imperial Palace, the Legation Quarter of Peking stood for more than half a century as 'a city apart' . Surrounded by thick walls, with entry to Chinese forbidden, the Quarter housed several hundred foreigners who lived in a miniature Europe in the heart of the Chinese capital. The Quarter boasted well-built embassies and fancy clubs which mimicked the latest European styles, maintained its own local government and postal service, and was serviced by a surprisingly large collection of banks and commercial establishments. A painful symbol of China's humiliation at the hands of western 'barbarians', the Legation Quarter was repossessed by the Chinese Government after 1949 and all foreigners were evicted. Little remains of the old Quarter today. Foreigners within the Gates reconstructs the story of the Peking Legation Quarter -- the 'little Europe' placed arrogantly in the heart of the Imperial capital -- tracing the Quarter's origins in the 18th century treaties of Tianjin and Peking, through the perilous Siege during the Boxer Rebellion of summer 1900, the rebuilding of the Quarter following th Boxer Settlement, the Japanese occupation of the 1930's, and finally the disappearance of the Quarter following the communist 'liberation'. The book's collection of rare photographs, numerous maps and lively prose provide a dramatic picture of one of the most fascinating encounters between China and the outside world -- inside the capital of the Middle Kingdom itself.

Foreigners within the Gates: The Legations at Peking

Michael J. Moser and Yeone Wei-Chih Moser

Tibetan folksongs sometimes sing of beyul - hidden lands that can only be seen by those of pure heart and mind. Tucked into the towering peaks and steeply forested valleys of the Eastern Himalayas, the Bhutanese believe their country to be such a place.  Bhutan: Hidden Lands of Happiness is a geographical and cultural passage from the yak pastures along the Tibetan border to the rice lands in central Bhutan. Guiding the reader through the districts of Paro, Thimphu, Punakha, Gasa, Laya, Lunana, Wangdi, Bumthang and Trongsa, the book reveals remote hot springs and isolated hermitages and ends in the streets and nightclubs of the country s capital, Thimphu Town. 108 black and white images narrated with stories, journal entries, folklore, dharma teachings and oral history create a portal across centuries. Clear, skillfully composed and rich in depth and detail, these flawless images illustrate an intimate tale of Bhutan told by an artist who is deeply familiar with his subject.

Bhutan: Hidden Lands of Happiness

John Wehrheim

Photography & Video

The Wellcome Library is one of the world's greatest collections of books, manuscripts, archives, films and paintings on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day. The Library's Asian Collections comprise electronic and printed books and manuscripts in more than 40 languages ranging for over 4000 years.  This lavishly illustrated book conveys the visual richness of the Wellcome collection of Islamic calligraphy for over ten centuries, providing an insight into the artistic and spiritual activity of Indian and Iranian peoples. The ninety beautifully written calligraphy exemplars were purchased in the early 20th century as a part of the private libraries of certain medical practitioners from that area, and reflect both the literary and artistic tastes of this professional group as well as their religious beliefs.  Prepared by an international team of scholars from the UK, Iran and Russia, the text is primarily intended for the general reader. It explains the concept of calligraphy in the world of arabic scripts, outlines its stylistic development over the past centuries, and illustrates the tools and methods used in practising the calligraphy. Detailed descriptions of the exemplars, along with extensive glossary and indices, also make this book an important reference for students, scholars, and academic libraries.

Islamic Calligraphy from the Wellcome Library

Nikolaj Serikoff

The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan

This catalogue accompanies The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, one of the most highly anticipated exhibitions of Buddhist art to be held in recent times. For over five years, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, under the direction of Dr. Stephen Little, has conducted ambitious fieldwork and research in Bhutan. Enjoying a close working relationship with the Royal Government of Bhutan, the Honolulu Academy of Arts research teams have been given unprecedented access to the nation s treasuries of sacred art and dance. 
 The Dragon's Gift offers a rare opportunity to introduce, to the wider international audience, some of the most sacred Buddhist images of Bhutan. From the wealth of material surveyed, the organizers of the exhibition have selected over one hundred objects of superior aesthetic achievement and deep religious significance, the vast majority of which have never before been seen in the West. Nearly all of the works of art presented in this catalogue are from active temples and monasteries and remain in ritual use. Most of the items are painted or textile thangkas or gilt bronze sculptures which date primarily from the 17th to the 19th centuries a golden age in the Buddhist arts of Bhutan. Ranging from depictions of Tantric deities to individualized portraits of Buddhist masters, the exhibition and catalogue present outstanding works of art with a wide iconographic scope. For the Buddhist people of Bhutan, these sacred items are conceived as supports along the journey to enlightenment, and are of vital spiritual significance. 
 Complementing the presentation of sacred works of art is the documentation of the ancient Cham dances of Bhutan, to which the dance preservation team was given privileged entrée. Having documented over three hundred hours of sacred and secular dances, they have made a first assay of one of the few surviving treasures of the trans-Himalayan movement tradition. These differing approaches to the visual and moving arts provide further insight into the unique experience of Buddhism in Bhutan. A brief sampling of the variety of extant dance lineages some many centuries old is included on the DVD contained within the catalogue. 
 Beautifully illustrated, the catalogue also includes twelve essays contributed by leading Bhutanese and Western scholars, covering various aspects of the Bhutanese arts. Contributors include: Dr. Stephen Little, Ven. Lopon Pemala, Ven. Khenpo Phuntsok Tashi, Terese Tse Bartholomew, John Johnston, Dr. Karma Phuntsho, Dr. David Jackson, Dr. John A. Ardussi, Dr. Yonten Dargye, Dr. Per K. Soerensen, Dorji Yangki, Ephraim Jose, Mark Fenn, and Joseph Houseal.

Honolulu Academy of Arts

Bhutanese textiles are among the last of the major arts of Asia to gain recognition in the West, and this is the first book to present this outstanding art form in its cultural and historical context. Bhutan's textiles, especially the intricate brocades and complex supplementary-warp patterns, are unmatched anywhere in the world. This art, with a steadily growing and devoted following in the West and Japan, has become Bhutan's most powerful emblem abroad. 
 This volume, first published in 1994 (now reprinted in 2008) in conjunction with a special exhibition organized by the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, covers all aspects of Bhutan's textiles and weaving heritage, from the central role of women - more than 80 percent of Bhutanese women contribute to their household's income by weaving - to fibers, dyes, and looms, to the functioning of beautiful cloth as an item of trade and an indicator of historical change and social identity. This copiously illustrated book reveals the richness, originality, and striking beauty of Bhutanese textiles. Examples come from the Peabody Essex Museum, which holds the largest such collection of any North American museum, and public and private collections in Bhutan, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The illustrations are supplemented by field photographs and rare archival images.

From the Land of the Thunder Dragon: Textile Arts of Bhutan

Michael Aris

Diana K. Myers

Françoise Pommaret

Susan S. Bean

Ladakh 1974 2008: A Photographic Homage by Jaroslav Poncar is a rare tribute to Ladakh, the "Land of Passes," one of the most beloved landscapes of the Himalayas. Poncar is one of the first Westerners to travel to Ladakh when it was open for visitors in 1974. His countless trips and his love for Ladakh resulted in this retrospective collection of photographs that span more than three decades. This singular volume honours the timeless Ladakh for its proud locals and unforgettable beauty. Beautifully illustrated, with texts by John Keay and Jaroslav Poncar's personal reflections on Ladakh and his photographs. Jaroslav Poncar was born in Prague in 1945. He now lives in Cologne, Germany, where he was professor at the Department for Imaging Sciences at Cologne University of Applied Science from 1973 to 2010. His countless, photographically motivated travels have usually taken him to the Himalayas, Tibet, India, Burma, Yemen and Cambodia. For twenty years he was concerned with the photographic documentation of the early buddhist all painting in the Himalayas (Alchi, Tabo, Mustang) and Tibet (Tholing). Between 1996 and 2005 he was the deputy director of the German Apsara Conservation Project in Angkor Wat, Cambodia and during this period he performed the most comprehensive photographic documentation of the largest temple in the world. His most recent publications are Burma: the Land that Time Forgot, Himalayas: Where Gods and Man Meet, Angkor: A Photographic Portrait, Himalayan Kingdoms and Tibet (all published in Germany). In Europe, during the short leaves he could take from his teaching, it was France where he pursues panoramic projects. To date he has published his panoramics from the Loire Valley and from Paris.

Ladakh 1974 - 2008: A Photographic Homage

JOHN KEAY

Jaroslav Poncar

The earliest and best-known guidebook to Tibet, composed by the greatest modern master of Tibetan Buddhism (Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo 1820-92), has long been consulted by specialists. It was first translated by students of Giuseppe Tucci in Rome in the 1950s, when the academic study of Tibetan culture was still in its formative period. This book is the long-awaited result of an extraordinary research adventure, compiled over more than a decade of independent travel, textual archaeology, field interviews with scholars, monks and villagers, photo research, and bearing witness to the brutal destruction and modern transformation of an ancient land. During the 1990s, Matthew Akester walked the length and breadth of central Tibet in the tracks of Khyentsé Wangpo, visiting all of the more than 200 places listed in the Guide, meeting the people who rebuilt them after the Cultural Revolution or who could remember what they once were, searching out Tibetan literary sources that shed even the faintest light on their history, and mapping them on a landscape rendered unrecognisable by the rapid construction of a new Chinese Tibet. This book is a monumental contribution to Tibetan studies, a treasure of insight into central Tibet s history and monuments, the world of traditional pilgrimage, and the life and times of the great Khyentsé Wangpo. Unusually, the text is designed to appeal to the lay reader while presenting in-depth research. To do so, it is divided between main text using phonetic spellings, and footnotes using technical transliteration. Added to this are some 250 historic photos of the places described, 500 recent ones, and a beautiful series of 15 maps in neo-traditional style, designed and drawn for the book, using data researched by the author. The effect is a layered presentation of a large range of information.

Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo's Guide to Central Tibet

Travel

Matthew Akester

Pictorial

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