Customer Reviews

The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple: Tantric Wall Paintings from Tibet

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This is a lovely book filled with fabulous images which have not been published before. The temple is like the Sistine Chapel of Tibet, intended, as the Sistine Chapel was, originally for the eyes of the spiritual leaders alone, but has now been opened.

Images are breathtakingly beautiful and quite unusual.

Another great book to get, if you like this kind of book, is the book Alchi, from a temple in Ladakh (published by Shambhala) which shows a temple from several centuries earlier than the Tibetan one. An interesting contrast.

Also recommended in the spiritual coffee table book genre is Richard Lannoy's Benares book, about the holiest of cities in India, where the Tibetans got their Tantric yogis from originally around the year 1000 or so.

In addition to being a meticulously executed illustrated art book, The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple: Tantric Wall Paintings from Tibet by Ian A. Baker, et al. guides the reader through some lesser known biographical details of Tibet's greatest Dalai Lamas and of the history of Tibetan Buddhist culture as a whole. The amazing drawings, many of which painted in an almost feverish surrealistic style, are accompanied by insights into the lore of the Dalai Lamas, with thoughtful excerpts from their writings. I am also much obliged as a book shopper to show my appreciation to the book's publisher, Thames & Hudson, for the excellent printing quality and overall layout and binding of this book, details which for me always work to enhance the message of a book and to demonstrate the seriousness and loving care with which the authors themselves have treated their creation.

The Dala Lama's Secret Temple is a wonderful and insightful look into one of the most spectacular temples in Lhasa. Having just visited the Lukhang, I had the pleasure to personally view the murals. Many of which are unique to Tibetan paintings. And still very preserved. Better than I could have photographed myself, this book presents each of the walls paintings in the highest quality plates. Descriptions of the historical significance of the temple mirror the detail works of the painting. A nice addition to a library of Tibetan Art and Buddhism.

A really beautiful book: pictures are magnificents, thanks to the anonymous ancient painter and to the modern photographer, with many pictures of the details of the paintings. But the book is worthy not only to see. The first chapter tells a short but interesting history of the temple and of the Dalai Lamas, and at the beginning of each of the three main sections (as there are three walls painted in the temple, corresponding to the three pillars of Dzogchen teaching: base, path and fruit) a short but careful explanation of the principles of Dzogchen, in connection with the painted teachings of the secret temple. I do loved this book, and reccomend it to anyone interested in Dzogchen and Tibetan culture and Buddhism.

This book is a valuable asset to anyone desiring an illustrated view of tantic Buddhism. With gorgeous pictures of the walls of the Lukhang Palace, and plenty of supporting documentation, the reader can truly appreciate the spiritual value of this book.

The only criticism I have of this book is the title: calling it "the secret temple" is a marketing ploy, as this temple is a major tourist attraction in china (formerly in part of tibet). But, the essays are enlightening on tibetan buddhist art. I'm not sure that the comparisons to Bosch and Breughal hold up to anyone who knows anything about european art, but that aside, it gives a fascinating overview of the history of the dali lamas and their relaitonship to art. i'd recommend this to anyone interested in art, buddhism or tibet. also, excellent page stock, photographs and binding.

In Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, just below the Potala Palace where the Dalai Lamas used to dwell, there is a small temple known as the Lukhang. It's built on a lake island and is used for worship of nagas (a kind of snake-spirits).

The temple also has a secret top floor...

The upper room of the Lukhang temple is decorated with mysterious mural paintings. These paintings were used by the Dalai Lamas as objects of meditation and contemplation. However, they were kept secret from ordinary believers. The temple was erected during the 17th century, but nobody knows exactly when the paintings were made. The present Dalai Lama never had the opportunity to see them in person, but he's familiar with their symbolism.

"The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple" by Ian Baker and Thomas Laird is a colourful book showing and analyzing the wall paintings in some detail. The two authors are obviously supportive of Tibetan Buddhism, and it's not clear how they convinced the Chinese authorities to grant them access to the temple. The Dalai Lama himself has written the foreword to their book, and much of the interpretation is presumably based on his teachings.

In many ways, the book is thus propaganda for Tibetan Buddhism, and it has a typically Western tendency to interpret the more mythological parts figuratively. Thus, nagas are said to symbolize the forces of nature, while (of course) Buddhists and Hindus tend to see them as real, supernatural beings. Even "the rainbow body", a supernatural and luminous body attained by accomplished masters after their physical death, is interpreted symbolically.

Despite this, "The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple" is nevertheless quite interesting, and gives a glimpse of Tibetan religion usually not talked about in Western media. The upper room of the Lukhang temple was apparently use for a secret practice known as Dzogchen, a kind of meditation supposedly leading to instant Buddhahood. The practice seems to have included meditation on hallucinatory visions induced by sensory deprivation, and was considered extremely dangerous. The authors point out that Dzogchen was associated with the Nyingma sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which was persecuted by the dominant Geluk sect of the Dalai Lamas. Yet, an inner group of Geluk-pas nevertheless practiced Dzogchen in secret, including some of the Dalai Lamas themselves! Other secret practices included ritual sex with a female consort. The aim was to become a siddha, a perfected master who has reached complete enlightenment and attained supernatural powers. The siddhas are said to be masters of compassion, leading other creatures to liberation. At their deaths, they attain the previously mentioned "rainbow body".

The various stages in this esoteric process to enlightenment are pictured on the temple walls. My initial reaction on seeing the mural paintings was that they are truly bizarre. The characters (mostly men, by the way) all look "stoned" or "high". Perhaps they are meant to look that way. The most humorous part of the book is a statement by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, laughingly denying that he ever had ritual sex!

I guess he'll never be a siddha, then.

"The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple" is interesting both as a (admittedly partisan) look at Tibetan religion, and as a travelogue about the distant land of Tibet. One star off for the allegorizing of the nagas, though.

In a visionary landscape worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, the murals at Lukhang depict spiritual adepts engaged in contemplative practices which were traditionally concealed even from ordained Tibetan monks. The murals' surreal, dream-like settings and esoteric symbolism defy easy access even to initiates. A visual analogue of the "twilight language" in which much Tantric literature is encoded, the paintings are often obscure and suggestive, urging the viewer beyond literal interpretations. Sections of the murals are accompanied by inscriptions which, quoting from various Tantric texts, illuminate the meaning behind specific images and serve as instructions in meditation and Tantric yoga. More than an illustrated treatise on mystical technique, however, the murals directly invoke Tibetan Buddhism's highest meditative experiences in visions that seem to anticipate the abstract art of the early 20th century. The murals fulfill a ritual function in that they seek "to bring about new relationships between persons and the sacred, to be a means for the transformation of the self."

Beautifuly done! Great pictures and explanations. Very useful for meditators and practioners of channels and winds.

a beautifully detailed book with amazing reproductions of these important paintings. highly recommended to anyone one interested in tibetan buddhism, art, tantra, or history.