Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols

Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols :

Robert Beer's first book, the 'Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs', generated immense interest in the subject. Here he offers a compact, concise reference work based on this landmark work and on the pictorial index he wrote for 'Deities of Tibetan Buddhism'. This handbook contains an extensive array of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist art and symbolism, accompanied by succinct explanations and offers a more user-friendly and accessible format than the Encyclopedia. It provides treatment of the most essential Tibetan traditional figures, themes and motifs, both secular and religious.

For artists, designers, and all with an interest in Buddhist and Tibetan art, this book features hundreds of the author's own exquisite line drawings, depicting landscape elements, animals, mythic creatures, plants, mudras, and the entire spectrum of ritual hand-held attributes and weapons - which range from complex full-page compositions to small individual drawings.

"The vast pantheon of Buddhist deities and their symbolic attributes are purely an encapsulation or visual expression of the entire path of the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana teachings. They can only really be understood through a deep comprehension of these teachings, and they can only be directly realized through the continuity of prolonged practice, performance, and perfection. To think that one can understand them through historical, psychological, or comparative interpretation is simply not adequate." Robert Beer.


This Amazon.com review is from: A Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols (Paperback)

"This volume took Robert Beer more than 10 years to complete, and one understands why. As far as I know it is the only book on the subject with such superbly crafted illustrations, each meticulously drawn in pencil-thin, lucid detail. There are a huge number of these drawings, and the well-structured text is informative, thorough and scholarly, without being dry. It is an eminent work of very high quality and a joy to read for any Buddhist practitioner, art lover, or just for curiosity. It is surely a classic reference volume. Modesty must have compelled the author and editors to give it the diminutive title 'a handbook' - it is indeed much more. Read it an enjoy."

© text by Robert Beer