Category: Tibetan Buddhism
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Mahaboudha Temple of 30,000 Buddhas
This temple located just south of Patan in Nepal was a wonderful site showcasing just one of the many, many works of art that is Nepal. Our instructor called it “The Temple of 30,000 Buddhas”. Although, across the internet it is said by many different people that the name is interchanged with “1,008” or “9,000”…
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About Stupas
Stupa in Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan. (1) A stupa is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics, typically the Buddhist monks or nuns, and used as a place of meditation. There are five types of stupas that are delineated based on their form and function(2) 1. Relic Stupa – in which the relics or remains…
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A Look at Kopan Monestary
At the mid point in the 2014 trip to Nepal our group made a three night stay at Kopan Monestary. Kopan Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery near Boudhanath, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. Kopan is member of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international network of Gelugpa dharma…
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Inside a Thangka Studio
Towards the end of our trip in Nepal we had the wonderful opportunity to venture into a working Thangka studio in foothills North of Kathmandu. We made our way into the small town and down a few alleyways to get to the studio. A thangka is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, or silk appliqué,…
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Swayambhunath The Monkey Temple
Along our trip in Nepal we visited the famous Swayambhunath. Swayambhunath is an ancient religious architecture atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. For the Buddhist Newars in whose mythological history and origin myth as well as day-to-day religious practice, Swayambhunath occupies a central position, it is probably the most sacred…
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The Best Temple Guardians
While touring Patan in Nepal our tour guide Pradip brought the group to a near by temple structure. Standing outside of the temple was the statue seen below (white). He stopped and asked the group, “What animal is seen here?”. Naturally, the figure did not look like any single animal. We could see it was…
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Tibetan Buddhist Art: Padmasambhava and the Wrathful Deities
The Buddhist and Hindu culture are flooded with rich art in more ways than one person could imagine. In the mind of a young Westerner the term art could mean an array of things, but may only bring up a narrow perception. The Western culture is not centered on symbolism, deep meaning, self-expression, or any…