Glossary

An icon is a picture of a sacred figure, while an “aniconic” image does not picture such figure, a god or deity, but instead represents them through symbols. For example, the Buddha can be represented by a wheel, a tree, an empty throne, a parasol, or footprints.

Appliqué is a technique of sewing patches of cloth, often silk or felt, onto a base to create a design or image. Used to make thangkas, carpets, and clothing, this technique allows for the creation of large-scale images, often hung from monastery walls or displayed on mountainsides as part of communal festivals and rituals. While the image may be designed by a Buddhist master, women are often involved in the creation of appliqués.

Avadana is a genre of narrative Buddhist literature found in the Mahayana sutras, and one category of Buddhist teachings. Together with the jataka stories that narrate the past lives of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, these stories typically demonstrate the workings of karma, or cause and effect, and how the protagonists’ past actions lead to their present experiences. Most Avadanas center on persons other than the Buddha, but they can relate to the Buddha as well.

Beri is a style of Tibetan painting based on Newar painting of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. With the destruction of many Indian monasteries in the thirteenth century, Nepal became an increasingly important source for Buddhist teachers and artisan.

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.

The Encampment tradition is an artistic tradition associated with the court of the Karmapas, who traveled in large monastic tent encampments. The painting tradition was established by the artist Namkha Tashi (active ca. 1568–1599). No extant painting by the hand of Namkha Tashi has yet been reliably identified, but religious masters of the Karma Kagyu are said to have urged Namkha Tashi to follow Indian Buddhist models for the figures and Chinese painting for coloring and shading, naming models from the Yuan and Ming courts. The style was revived by Situ Panchen (1700–1774). Sometimes called the “New Encampment” style, these paintings are characterized by open airy landscapes of soft blue and green. The Encampment tradition also included a lesser-known sculptural tradition, founded by the artist Karma Sidrel (d. 1591/92).

Engraving is the process of incising lines, patterns, or writing into the surface of an object, such as a metal or wooden sculpture, or natural surface, such a stone.

Gilding is a metalworking technique in which a fine golden surface is applied over a statue made of bronze. In Newar metalworking workshops, gilding is typically done with fire and mercury, which gives sculptures a warm finish (but is poisonous for their makers). In Tibetan contexts sometimes gold dust is mixed with glue and applied with a brush (often called “cold gold”), especially to a deity’s face to gain merit.

In the Himalayan context, iconography refers to the forms found in religious images, especially the attributes of deities: body color, number of arms and legs, hand gestures, poses, implements, and retinue. Often these attributes are specified in ritual texts (sadhanas), which artists are expected to follow faithfully.

Iconometry means the measurement of icons or religious images. Especially in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, detailed manuals exist that use precise proportional measurements to standardize the iconography of major deities, and maintain their correct proportions, regardless of scale. These proportions are commonly expressed visually in artist manuals as iconometric grids.

An illuminated manuscript is one that is adorned with images, designs, and decorative text. Unlike an “illustrated” text, the images in an illuminated text don’t necessarily show scenes from the story of the text.

Inlay is a decorative technique of creating a depression in a surface and then filling it with some other material. Metal can be inlaid with precious stones or glass, or more precious forms of metal, for instance, brass inlaid with silver and copper. Wood can be inlaid with silver, or other metal and conch. Tibetans tend to favor turquoise inlay while the Newars employ a range of colored glass and semi-precious stones.

Kesi is a type of silk weaving known from China and eastern Central Asia, originally associated with the Sogdian and Uyghur peoples. Kesi uses raw silk for the warp and boiled silk of various colors for the weft, producing vivid blocks of color. As the finished surface has a carved-like effect, giving the textile a three-dimensional quality, the technique became known as kesi, which literally means “carved silk.” By the early thirteenth century, the Tanguts employed this luxury medium for the creation of Tibetan Buddhist icons, which would be emulated by other courts, such as the Mongols, Chinese, and Manchus.

The Khyentse artistic tradition of painting and sculpture was founded by Khyentse Chenmo, an artist who worked in central Tibet during the fifteenth century. It is one of two new distinctively Tibetan artistic traditions which arose at this time, the Khyentse and Menla traditions, the first to be named after Tibetan artists, suggesting they are seen as indigenous artistic traditions. These painting styles (Khyenri and Menri) are both known for adopting Chinese landscape into their compositions. Gongkar Chode, near Lhasa, is the only monastery that preserves wall paintings by Khyentse Chenmo’s hand, which he created from 1464 to 1476. His paintings are known for their realism and great attention to detail, particularly in portraits and paintings of wild animals and birds, as well as his depiction of wrathful deities.

Lacquer is a technique for coating wood with a hard, smooth, shiny finish usually made from resin of particular tree species, or from the secretions of the lac insect. The English word “lacquer” comes from the Sanskrit “laksha,” meaning “one hundred thousand,” referring to the great numbers of secretion-producing insects that infect certain trees. In Himalayan art, lacquer was a Chinese luxury media (along with porcelain, silk, etc.) used to create Tibetan Buddhist images and ritual objects beginning in the thirteenth century under Mongol Yuan patronage, and followed by later courts.

The lost-wax technique is a metal casting method used in many Asian cultures. First, the sculptor shapes an image out of beeswax. Then layers of clay are applied to the wax model, from fine to coarse, creating a mold, usually in several parts. When the clay mold is heated, the clay hardens and the wax is drained out. The metalworker then pours molten metal into the empty space of the mold through the same channels the wax was poured out. When the metal has cooled and hardened, the clay mold is broken off, revealing the rough metal statue inside. This statue is often then polished, chiseled, combined with parts that were cast separately, gilded, inlaid with precious substances, and painted.

Menla artistic tradition was founded by Menla Dondrup, an artist who worked in central Tibet during the fifteenth century. It is one of two new distinctively Tibetan artistic traditions which arose at this time, the Menla and Khyentse traditions, named after Tibetan artists. These painting styles (Menri and Khyenri) are known for adopting Chinese landscape into their compositions. Menri painting is known to excel in its depiction of peaceful deities. While paintings by Menla Dondrup’s own hand have yet to be reliably identified, a handbook of iconometry, The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, is attributed to him. The New Menri Style was established by the artist Choying Gyatso (active ca.1640s–1660s) in the court of the Fourth Panchen Lama. Choying Gyatso’s compositions are well known through woodblock prints, characterized by dynamically postured figures set in dramatic Chinese-inspired landscapes.

Papier-mâché is a sculpting technique that uses wet paper mixed with an adhesive. The paper can either be pulped and used to form a sculptable mass around a wire frame, or spread in strips over a pre-made backing. When the paper dries it forms a hard, light surface. Many Himalayan temple images and cham masks were made from papier-mâché, although due to the perishable nature of the material, fewer of these survive than sculptures in stone or metal.

Religious painting, usually on cloth, in the form of a hanging scroll.

A petroglyph is an image cut into a stone. Such images are usually from the prehistoric period, and depict animals, hunters, and symbols related to early ritual.

In weaving a pile is a portion of yarn that protrudes above the surface of the backing fabric, creating a soft and deep texture for a carpet or garment. A “knotted pile” carpet is one in which the pile is created by knotting yarn into the warp and weft to create loops of protruding fiber. Pile loops can sometimes be cut open to create an even more springy texture (a “cut-pile” carpet).

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.

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.

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.

Socialist realism was an artistic movement practiced during the twentieth century in communist countries, especially China and the Soviet Union. Socialist realism idealistically portrays the lives of working people, often as propaganda to inspire the masses for the state’s economic and social campaigns. Most socialist realism derived from the European tradition of oil painting, but some images used traditional Asian visual forms and conventions, including Tibetan thangka painting and Chinese woodblock prints.