Deities & Iconography

Learn to read an Eight-Direction Wealth Deities Thangka through hierarchy, mounts, guardian figures, offerings, and cautious identification.

Learn how to distinguish Yama from Yamantaka by reading wrathful attributes, retinues, lineage figures, and museum catalog evidence in TK0482.

Read Buddha preaching scenes through teaching gestures, halos, monastic and jeweled attendants, guardians, ritual objects, and cautious identification.

Identify Maitreya through the stupa, water flask, bodhisattva and Buddha forms, inscriptions, regional traditions, and a practical visual checklist.

Learn how black-ground Thangka paintings use luminous lines, limited color, iconometric hierarchy, and careful preservation.

Read an Amitabha Pure Land painting through its central triad, palace, lotus pond, assemblies, rebirth imagery, and narrative side panels.

Identify the Four Heavenly Kings through directions, armor, attributes, placement, and regional variations in Buddhist art.

A visual guide to identifying Parnashavari through her yellow body, three faces, six arms, leaf garment, ritual attributes, healing associations, and documented variations.

A visual guide to reading the Medicine Buddha Mandala in TK0573: palace gates, symbolic circles, blue Buddha imagery, retinue figures, protectors, and uncertain details.

Read the Vajra Realm Mandala through its nine assemblies, Mahavairocana, Five Buddhas, symbolic panels, and careful identification checks.