Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs

Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs :

The culmination of a 15 year project to compile an extensive series of iconographical drawings, this book depicts all the main symbols, ritual objects, attributes, weapons and auspicious emblems which occur within the vast spectrum of Tibetan art.

Reflecting upon the inner and often hidden meanings and origins encapsulated in this most complex of inconographical traditions, this book features several thousand individual drawings, and the accompanying text by the author interweaves the origins, meanings and functions of this vast symbolism, derived from India, Tibet and China, into a comprehensive tapestry within a Buddhist conceptual framework.

Twelve chapters present the following subjects: landscape elements, flora, fauna, mythological and natural animals, narrative illustrations, cosmology - mount meru, mandala offering, astrology, the Kalachakra mantra syllables, stupas, chakras and channel-wheel systems, mudras, the chakravartin, auspicious offerings and symbols, ritual implements and weapons, wrathful attributes, tormas, the inner and outer offerings, geometric borders and designs.


This Amazon.com review is from: The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Hardcover):

"Other reviewers have praised the usefulness of this beautiful book for those interested in Tibetan Religious Art and Vajrayana Buddhism. No doubt the efforts of this author to make this most complex of traditions more accessible and intelligible deserves our gratitude. However I would like to particularly point to the artistic quality of the plates. Today in the time of computer graphics and push-button reproduction of images, it is hard to find anyone under the age of 70 who has taken the care to acquire artistic skill and apply it as Robert Beer has done. The plates in this book are all originally composed, not just copied. They are accomplished by drawing with the finest imaginable brush and ink (no computerized improvements here). In other words, we are talking a labor of love which is also a masterpiece. Each plate yields new detail and delight on each viewing. I write this to tempt those who are not devotees of Eastern religion but are lovers of fine art to invest. It will yield hours of pleasure in the seeeing for the rest of your life."

© text by Robert Beer