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The Richard R. & Magdalena Ernst Collection of Himalayan Art (2018)

The Richard R. & Magdalena Ernst Collection of Himalayan Art. Auction, 22 March 2018, 10:00 AM EDT, Sotheby’s New York. Sale Number N09800. (Part of Asia Week New York.) [official site] [PDF]

Note: This extraordinary collection contains Nepalese paintings that have received little attention or that are otherwise significant. For instance, Lot 907 (below) is identified as a painted icon of Buddhakapāla (?), which would make it the only one known in Nepal.

Buddhakapāla couple (? supplied identification) with four yoginīs and donors, Nepal, early 19th c., Sotheby’s Sale N09800 Lot 907
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Longdok Nima (2012), Mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism

བསྟན་འཛིན་ལུང་རྟོགས་ཉི་མ། མཐུ་སྟོབས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ། ཨོ་རྒྱན་རིག་འཛིན། 《བོད་བརྒྱུད་ནང་བསྟན་སྔ་འགྱུར་བཀའ་གཏེར་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་དཔེ་རིས་》 གྲུབ་དབང་རྫོགས་ཆེན་སྔ་འགྱུར་བཀའ་གཏེར་སྒྲུབ་འཕྲིན་ཕྱག་བཞེས་ཉམས་གསོ་ཆོགས་པ། བོད་ལྗོངས་མི་དམངས་དཔེ་སྐྲུན་ཁང། (ལྷ་ས་)

旦増·龍多尼瑪 / 士多尼瑪 等 (主編) 《藏传佛教坛城度量彩绘图集》 西藏人民出版社 2012年6月 680元

Tenzin Longdok Nima (ed.-in-chief.) Mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism. Lhasa: Dzogchen Monastery’s Early Tradition Canonical and Treasure Teaching Revival Group & Tibet People’s Press, 2012. xi+226+ii pp. ISBN 9787223035569.

From the Preface

This volume “Mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism” features over sixty detailed mandalas. It is the result of over two years of dedicated research and preparation by a group of eminent scholars from the famous Dzogchen Monastery, one of the six major monasteries of the Nyingma tradition.

དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཚོན་ལྡན་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར། (2012:112-113)
དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཚོན་ལྡན་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར། (2012:112-113)
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Chan, ‘The Dharmatrāta-Dhyāna Sūtra’ (2013)

Chan, Yiu-wing 陳耀榮. ‘An English translation of the Dharmatrāta-Dhyāna Sūtra (達摩多羅禪經 T15, no.618) — With Annotation and a Critical Introduction’. PhD diss., The University of Hong Kong, 2013. ix+548 pp. [official site]

From the Abstract

One of the early texts translated from Sanskrit into ancient Chinese in around 411 C.E. is called the Dharmatrāta-dhyāna-sūtra (T15, no.618) which was a detailed account of the meditational methods of Buddhasena and Dharmatrāta who were the two most renowned dhyāna teachers in Kaśmīra around 400C.E. They may be regarded as belonging to the tradition of the Sarvāstivāda Dārṣṭāntika masters who were characterized by their active interest in meditation and popular preaching in which they excelled in communicating through poems and allegories. […]
This sūtra essentially preserves the ancient Sarvāstivādin meditation teachniques. But it importantly incorporates Mahāyānistic-Tantric elements, such as the maṇḍala and visualization. […] As a result, it came to exert a great impact on the subsequent teaching and practice of Chinese Buddhism, particularly those of Buddhist meditation.

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Wright, ‘The Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana’ (2010)

Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛtasādhana kumbhastambhas

Roger Wright. ‘The Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana and its context’. MA thesis (Religions), School of Oriental and African Studies, 2010. [PDF (‘internet version’)]

From the Abstract (sic)

This paper analyses and comments on the Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana, a ritual practice manual for the Guhyasamāja Highest Yoga Tantra, attributed to Nāgārjuna. It is based on a correlated translation of the Sanskrit and Tibetan versions of the text prepared for the purpose. […]
Particular attention has been given to making the translation of the visualizations of the architecture and the deities themselves clear by providing tables and illustrations. The philosophical background of the text is investigated and the way in which that was subtly altered by subsequent commentators when it no longer fitted the later “philosophical climate” is made clear. The continuity of the practice is discussed, from its inception to the present day.

Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛtasādhana kumbhastambhas. Wright p.68

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Tanaka, ‘Maṇḍala Graphics’ (2007)


田中公明 『曼荼羅グラフィクス』 山川出版社 (April 10, 2007)
￥2940. ISBN 978-4-634-64026-9

Contains digital reconstructions of mandalas from the Vajrāvalī and the Mi tra brgya tsa. A version in English is forthcoming.