Buddhist Paintings of Darjeeling: Identification and Interpretation

Abstract

The time has not yet come to write a history of Buddhist art. Such a study needs a detailed description of all the collections of Buddhist art preserved in different parts of the country and outside the country. The Buddhist painting of Darjeeling characterized the pantheon of northern Buddhism. It is very difficult task to distinguish and classify the host of many-armed and many-headed divine beings, armed with whole arsenal of warlike attributes, the numerous figures of saintly lamas, abbots of monasteries, who appears on painting side by side number of religious symbols gives multiple meaning and disseminate the idea of direct intuition along with ethnographic variation.