Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet

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By Kurt Behrendt
With essays by Christian Luczanits and Amy Heller and an interview with Tenzing Rigdol

A mandala is a diagram of the universe—a map of true reality intended to provide a focus for Buddhist religious practice and inspire the devout. This book highlights the distinctive Tibetan approach to creating mandalas, exploring how the form crossed over from India into Tibet, and how continuous exchanges of art and ideas between the two cultures, led by monks and spiritual teachers, gave rise to a uniquely Tibetan style of Buddhist imagery. Featuring more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and ritual objects, this superbly illustrated volume reflects the dazzling complexities of the Tibetan imagery that has provided a foundation for mandalas through the centuries. Most notably, a mesmerizing installation by the Tibetan-American artist Tenzing Rigdol (b. 1982), specially created for the accompanying exhibition and published here for the first time, offers contemporary audiences a way of interrogating and understanding their world and underscores how this ancient tradition remains a vibrant living practice.

Kurt Behrendt is Associate Curator of South Asian Art, Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Amy Heller is Research Associate, Institute for the Science of Religion, University of Bern; Senior Research Fellow, Margot and Thomas Pritzker Art Collaborative; and Associate Researcher, CNRS–Paris, Centre de Recherche sur les Civilisations de l'Asie Orientale.

Christian Luczanits is David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art, Department of History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Tenzing Rigdol is a contemporary artist based in New York and Kathmandu.