Encyclopedia of Buddhism

1. Aksobhya: “Imperturbable” (vajrafamily), sap-
   phire blue, earth-touching gesture (bhu
   mispars ́a-
   mudra
   ), east (some sects place Aksobhya in the
   center); the Buddha’s enlightenment.


2. Ratnasambhava: “Jewel-Born” (jewel family),
   golden yellow, giving gesture (varada-mudra
   ),
   south; the Buddha’s generosity as shown in his
   choice to teach and as demonstrated in his pre-
   vious lives.


3. Amita
   bha: “Infinite Light” (lotus family), ruby
   red, meditation gesture (dhya
   na-mudra
   ), west;
   the Buddha’s path of meditation.


4. Amoghasiddhi: “Infallible Success” (karma fam-
   ily), emerald green, protection gesture (abhaya-
   mudra
   ), north; the Buddha’s miraculous powers
   to protect and save.


5. Vairocana: “Illuminator” (buddha family), dia-
   mond white, turning the wheel of the dharma
   gesture (dharmacakra-mudra
   ), center (some
   sects place Vairocana in the east); the Buddha’s
   first sermon and all of his teachings.

The colors of yi damsare determined by their place
within the five families. The talents and weapons they
bring to the particular meditation ritual they guide are
shown by other attributes. For example, the yi dam
Vajravara
h
is red because she is related to AMITA
BHA.
She carries a ritual chopper with which she cuts through
ignorance, because her function is to confer transcen-
dent wisdom. Her consort Cakrasamvara is blue be-
cause he is related to AKSOBHYA, and he carries many
weapons because he is charged with providing whatever
skillful means, all rooted in compassion, are needed to
enable the practitioner to become enlightened.

Regional variations
Indian practitioners and artists of esoteric Buddhism
came to the fore after about 500 C.E. They began to
make images of many new deities, often displaying rit-
ualized sexual postures (Sanskrit, yuganaddha or ma-
ha
mudra
). They also increased the depiction and
variety of ritual gestures and devices, extended the use
of mandalas, and recognized that artistic activity itself
could be a form of spiritual practice. The earliest im-
age of a deity holding a vajraoccurs in the northwest-
ern region of ancient Gandha
ra.

The advent of Buddhism in Tibet occurred in the
seventh century C.E. Tibetan esoteric arts grew around
a seeding of Indian tantric forms among the indige-

nous shamanic religion called BON. Particular to Tibet

and later Nepal is the extensive use of the posture called

yab-yum,literally “father-mother” in Tibetan, as a po-

tent visual metaphor for the absolute necessity of join-

ing the goddess’s transcendent wisdom with the god’s

skillful means: They are physically joined in a sexual

embrace. The whirling dance posture of mostly nude

figures is also characteristic of the Himalayas.

Another Tibetan iconographic form is the lineage

painting used to legitimize sects, tulkus(sprul sku; liv-

ing incarnations of particular bodhisattvas, such as the

DALAILAMAas an incarnation of Avalokites ́vara), and

teachers within a genealogy of previous teachers and

the transcendent buddha families. Parallel to this de-

velopment is the wide proliferation of small mchod

rtens(elongated stu
pas) to commemorate, as well as

to invoke, the protective powers of teachers, saints,

tulkus,and sacred scriptures. Huge three-dimensional

mandalas, some with interior shrines, are also thought

of as mchod rtens.Unique to Nepal are the eye-mchod

rtens, which have an enormous pair of eyes painted

on each side of the square base beneath the top spire;

these eyes belong either to Vairocana, the Illumina-

tor, or to the primordial buddha principle named

Adibuddha.

RITUAL OBJECTSsuch as the prayer wheel, the vajra

(Tibetan, rdo rje), the bell, and the phur pa(Tibetan,

used to “nail” down demons) were extensively devel-

oped in the Himalayan regions. The highly sophisticated

techniques of making and consecrating these necessary

implements spread to Southeast and East Asia.

Esoteric Buddhism in Southeast Asia thrived mainly

in Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma), Kampuchea (Cambo-

dia), Malaya, and Indonesian Java. The most impor-

tant esoteric art forms that remain are the complexes

of Angkor Thom in Cambodia and BOROBUDURin

Java, as well as many fine examples of ritual imple-

ments and sculptures. Borobudur (about 850 C.E.)

elaborates the life of the Buddha S ́a
kyamuni as the ideal

path to enlightenment. Each stage is represented on a

different level of this enormous three-dimensional

mandala, with seventy-two pierced stu
pas on the top

level, each housing Vairocana as he illuminates the

world. This site is both a straightforward and an eso-

teric commemoration of the Buddha’s birth, enlight-

enment, and death.

See also: Buddha(s); Esoteric Art, East Asia; Hi-

malayas, Buddhist Art in; Huayan Art; Southeast Asia,

Buddhist Art in; Tibet

ESOTERICART, SOUTH ANDSOUTHEASTASIA