Three Hundred Icons of Tibetan Lamaism

Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Qianlong period (1736-95), undated

Attributed to Lcan-skya Qutugtu Rol-p'ai-rdo-rje (1717-86)

Beijing: Songzhu si, n.d. [between 1736 and 1795]

110 folios with two perforations along top edge of each for binding with string; each folio: approx. 9.0 x 23.3 cm; height of complete stack: 2.2 cm; block sizes of 10 folios with prefatory text: approx. 5.6-5.9 x 17.1-17.2 cm; block sizes of 100 folios with illustrations on the recto: approx. 5.6-5.7 x 17.2-17.6 cm; block sizes of 100 folios with explanatory texts on the verso: approx. 5.7-5.9 x 17.5-17.6 cm

No inventory number

This illustrated pantheon encapsulates the entire range of Tibetan Buddhist iconography. Such albums are extremely important when studying thangkas and other paintings in which the representations of deities are not specifically identified.

The first 10 folios contain the preface in Tibetan and Mongolian, and each of the following 100 illustrated folios has three icons arranged hierarchically with the central figure being the first, the one at right the second, and then the one at left; their Tibetan names are given below. The dharanis (magical formulas believed to protect their writers and reciters), which correspond to each of these icons, appear on the verso of the folios, and the Sanskrit names of all the icons are embedded within them.