The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism (revised edition)

Hacker Art Books, New York, 1988 Book. Good. Hardcover. 2nd Edition. English text.; Hardcover (cloth without dust jacket); 24 x 31.5 cm; 1.7 Kg; 31 pages with foreword, contents and introduction plus 131 pages with black and white illustrations throughout.; Used with signs of wear on the hardcover cloth. Interior in very good condition except for a previous owner stamp on front free endpaper and a previous bookseller sticker on the rear of the back cover.; Reprinted from the second edition (revised and enlarged) Charles E. Tutle Co., Rutland, Vermont 1959.; "The first part of the book deals with 'Ritual Objects', 'Talismans", "Symbols", Mudras (symbolic hand poses), Asanas and Vahanas (position of lower limbs), and various kinds of paintings such as Thang-ka (paintings of divinities), Mandala (ritual diagrams), Tshong-shing (assemblage of divinities), and Bhavacakramudra (commonly known as 'Wheel of Life'. The major portion of the book is devoted to the classification, and interpretation of numerous Buddhist divinities, gods on non-Buddhist Tibetan origin, and historical persons who became deified. The most important addition to the present revised edition is the inclusion of the Narthang Series of 31 Thang-kas, which represent incidents in the former lives of Gautama before he attained enlightenment. These 31 Thang-kas constitute the first group of the collection of the late Baron von Stael-Holstein of Peking, which was later added to the Tibetan Collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York." excerpt from the critical review by Joseph M. Kitagawa, The Journal of Religion 41, no. 2 (Apr., 1961): 144-145..