The Goddess of the White Umbrella (the Buddhist deity Ushnisha-sitatapatra) is one of many powerful female deities. She manifests her power with her thousand heads, arms, and legs. She has eyes on the palms of each of her hands and soles...

A mandala is a schematic diagram that portrays the sacred environment of a particular deity. The mandala is used by practitioners as a guideline for meditation. It helps people visualize the way in which they will restructure the world...

The main image in this painting is Avalokiteshvara (1), the Bodhisattva of Compassion. He is the principle patron deity of Tibet. He sits on a lotus throne upon a lunar disc. This god takes many forms, such as the Dalai Lamas of Tibet,...

Mahakala Bramanarupa is one of over 70 different deities of the Mahakala type. These are wrathful deities particularly adept at quelling monsters and overcoming demons, whether they be outer, inner or secret. Some deities, such as...

In Tibet, religious paintings come in several forms, including wall paintings, thangkas (sacred pictures that can be rolled up), and miniatures for ritual purposes or for placement in household shrines. Thangkas were commissioned for...

Penden Lhamo is one of the more wrathful female deities of Buddhism. Among her many roles, she is the special protector of the city of Lhasa, the Gelukpa Order, and the Dalai Lamas of Tibet. She was invited to Tibet in around the...

This black cabinet was once stored in the gongkhang of an unknown temple in Tibet. Forbidden to the uninitiated, the gongkhang is a special room set aside for the worship of wrathful deities, where only the initiated monks of the...

Prayer wheels are an example of Buddhist technology. This technology allowed the faithful to multiply the number of prayers they expressed by millions. This is because prayer wheels are filled with copies of mantras (sacred spells...

The vajra (Tibetan: Dorjie) and bell (Sanskrit: ghanta; Tibetan: drilbu) are the most important ritual objects of Tibetan Buddhism. Most every lama has a pair and knows how to use them. They represent "method" (vajra) and "wisdom"...

An article on Vajrayana, one of the three Buddhist routes to enlightenment. The article includes the history of Vajrayana and its teachings, as well as information about its development in places beyond India, such as China, Japan, and...

An overview of Tibetan Biddhism, with links to more information on teachings, texts, and similar subjects.