Glossary

Ranjana, sometimes known by its Tibetan pronunciation “lantsa,” is one of several scripts used in Nepal to write Nepalese and Sanskrit. Tibetans and Mongols often use Ranjana as a decorative script to write Sanskrit mantras and dharanis.

Ratnasambhava is a buddha in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. In the Five Buddha Families of the Yoga Tantras, Ratnasambhava is the head of the Jewel Family, his symbolic attribute is a jewel, he is colored yellow, and is associated with the direction south.

Becoming a Buddhist is often described as “taking refuge” in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings), and the Sangha (monastic community). A “refuge field” or “tree of refuge” is a particular genre of Tibetan painting that depicts all the important deities and historical masters of a particular Buddhist tradition in a tree-like arrangement. It shows an assembly of gurus and deities as they should be imagined when a meditator mentally takes refuge in them. These images often systematize the transmission lineage, or the uninterrupted line of teachers through which knowledge and tantric initiations and instructions were passed down, stretching back to the Buddha himself.

In the Buddhist context, a relic is an object or body part of a past master or sacred figure, including Buddha Shakyamuni himself (bones, ashes from cremation, even entire mummified bodies). Another important category of relics is called “sharira” in Sanskrit (Tib. ringsel)— small, pearl-like objects that are found within the cremated remains of enlightened teachers. Another category, known as contact relics, includes things owned or touched by religious masters, such as the Buddha’s robe or bowl. Important types widely used in Himalayan regions are dharma relics (dharma sharira), which are pressed clay plaques inscribed with the verse of dependent origination or mantras. Relics can be placed inside stupas, ground up and used for medicine, or kept in temples for the reverence of pilgrims. A container that holds relics is called a “reliquary.”

Relief carvings are made by hollowing out a flat surface around a pattern, usually stone or wood, to form designs or figures that appear to protrude.

A reliquary is any container that contains relics. Important types of Himalayan reliquaries include stupas and gau boxes.

Repoussé is a metal-working technique in which an artisan hammers the back side of a sheet of metal, indenting it outward to create an image in relief on the reverse face.

The Rigveda is the oldest section of the Indian Vedas, and the oldest texts of the religion now called Hinduism. Written in Sanskrit sometime in the second millennium BCE, the Rigveda consists of poetic hymns to the early Hindu gods, including Indra, Agni, Vishnu, and others. Also important is soma, an intoxicating drink that allows the Vedic sages to directly contact the gods. Hindus still read the Vedic hymns today, making it probably the oldest continuously used religious text in the world. For scholars, the Rigvedas are a crucial window into the very early stages of Indic society and religion.

The Rinpungpa were a regional power based in west-central Tibet (Tsang) that flourished from the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. Patronizing the Kagyu sect and the Karmapas, the Rinpungpa lords were engaged in a series of conflicts with Pakmodru and other Tibetan principalities. In the 1560s, the declining Rinpungpas were defeated and their realm absorbed by the kings of Shigatse.