Glossary

Caste is a traditional system of social division in India and Nepal. The English word “caste” combines two Indic concepts. “Varna” refers to an ancient fourfold division of occupations into priests (brahmins), warriors, farmers, and laborers. In Nepal, the caste system is unique and applies to both Hindu and Buddhists. Like the Hindu brahmins, Buddhist Vajracharya priests and Shakyas are considered the highest caste among the Buddhists, with similar correlations to other social occupational groups. Udas or Uray caste is formed by hereditary merchants and artisans. They are known for their part in the development of industry, trade, arts and culture, and the trade with Tibet. The other ethnic groups traditionally existed largely outside of caste. The caste system was officially abolished in Nepal in 1963.  

Wheels are an important symbol in Buddhism, which often refers to the Buddha’s teachings as “turning the wheel of the Dharma.” When depicted in the hands of a deity or human, a wheel can also denote political power, symbolizing the chakravartin or universal ruler. In the Hindu tradition, the chakra is an ancient weapon, carried by gods such as Vishnu. Chakras can also refer to focal points in the human body; in both Hindu and Buddhist systems of yogic meditation, practitioners channel the energies of the body through these points to obtain higher states of consciousness.

Chakrasamvara is the name of one of the Highest Yoga tantras. Chakrasamvara is also the name of the central deity of the tantra, along with his consort Vajravarahi. Like other tantras of its class, the Chakrasamvara tantra contains transgressive imagery of wrathful deities, charnel grounds, and deities in sexual embrace.

A chakravartin is an ideal of Buddhist kingship, a universal ruler who supports the sangha and “turns the wheel of the Dharma.” Since the time of Emperor Ashoka (304–232 BCE), the archetypal chakravartin, many Buddhist rulers in history have been praised as chakravartins, or rulers who support Buddhism and help its spread through the expansion of his domains.

Cham is a type of ritual dance performed in Tibetan Buddhism, often at holidays like the new year or the Monlam Chenmo prayer festival. The cham dancers, who are usually monks, put on masks and perform the actions of the deities they portray. Often these dancers are understood to “become” the deities. The dances often have an exorcistic function and generally are performed for the benefit of an entire community.

In India and Tibet, a charnel ground is a place where dead bodies are brought for cremation or exposure to be consumed by vultures. In early Buddhism, practitioners would come to these places to meditate on death and impermanence. In tantric forms of Hinduism and in Vajrayana Buddhism, these charnel grounds became an important gathering place for yogins, and a source of transgressive imagery for iconographies of tantric deities and the siddhas who embody these practices.

Buddhism first appeared in China in the first century CE, and by the fourth century had become one of the major religions of the country, along with Daoism and Confucianism. Essentially all Chinese Buddhism is Mahayana; Vajrayana teachings flourished for a brief period in the eighth century, but suffered repression and mostly disappeared as an organized school of practice, except in the southwest. Chan (Zen) Buddhism is a unique Chinese tradition, known for its teachings on sudden enlightenment, some of which parallel teachings of Dzogchen (the Great Perfection) practiced in Tibetan regions. Other Chinese Buddhists follow Pure Land teachings, hoping to be reborn in the western paradise of Amitabha.

A “priest-patron” relationship is one in which a secular ruler supports the Buddhist monastic hierarchy with gifts of land, wealth, and protection, while Buddhist masters perform rituals on behalf of the ruler and the state. This arrangement defined Tibetan Buddhists’ relationships with rulers, including Mongol Khans or the Manchu emperors. The relationship between the Mongol emperor Qubilai Khan and the Tibetan imperial preceptor Pakpa became emblematic of this system.

Chod is a ritual technique in the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as in Bon. In a Chod ritual, the practitioner visualizes dismembering of his or her body and offering it to demons. This method is “cutting through” or destroying the ego, which is the primary impediment to awakening (enlightenment).

Circumambulation means walking around something. Himalayan Buddhists often circumambulate as a form of veneration and generate/accrue merit by walking in a clockwise direction around stupas, monasteries, or sacred mountains. Bonpos do the same thing, except counter-clockwise.

Cloisonné is a decorative technique in which pieces of enamel, glass, or precious stones are inlayed into a surface, usually bordered with copper or golden wire. Cloisonné is usually applied to pieces of metalwork. In a Himalayan context, cloisonné was sometimes employed by court workshops in China for the creation of colorful Tibetan Buddhist images and ritual paraphernalia in the Mongol Yuan, Chinese Ming, and Manchu Qing dynasties to ornament temples in Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian regions.

Confucianism refers to the teachings of Confucius (559–479 BCE), a philosopher, ritualist, and political advisor who lived in eastern China. Confucius and his disciples stressed the importance of filial piety, ritual correctness, moral governance, and propriety in human relationships. In the Song Dynasty (960–1279), a version of Confucius’s teachings called “Neo-Confucianism” became the dominant ideology in China, and government officials were selected based on competitive exams on Neo-Confucian philosophy until 1905. At a popular level, “Confucianism” often refers to Chinese traditions of filial piety and ancestor veneration, many of which blended elements of Daoism and Buddhism.

In most Asian religious traditions, when an image of a deity is made, it must be made sacred (“consecrated”) by inviting the deity to inhabit it. A variety of rituals can be involved in this, including dotting the image’s eyes, visualizing the descent of the deity into the image, writing mantras on the back of a thangka, or placing sacred texts and mantras inside of a statue.

The Copper-Colored Mountain (Zangdok Pelri) is said to be the dwelling place or mandala-palace of the legendary Vajrayana master Padmasambhava. This mountain-palace is depicted in many thangkas and constructed as temples and portable shrines used by manipa itinerant storytellers.

The Cultural Revolution was a political and social movement in communist China from 1966 to 1976. During this time, traditional culture across all of China came under violent attack, and almost all religious institutions were shut down and many were physically destroyed. In minority areas, ethnic differences and indigenous cultural practices, such as use of Tibetan language or dress, were seen as backward and subject to persecution, adding an additional racial dimension. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans fled to India or Nepal, and many Himalayan artworks were destroyed or scattered abroad.