Customer Reviews

Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan Art in Practice

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The most definitive guide to Buddhism. The deity are all beautifully illustrated in rich color, complete with the historical background of the deity that gain enormous popularity in the east.

It had all the answers that you had always wanted to ask in the past. For illustration why some deities look so wraughtful, fierce and the significance of those implements or objects they hold.

I like the most is the explaination on the deity background concise, full illustrated, very well elaborated and accurate description.

An indispensible guide! Highly recommended.

If you've ever seen Tibetan Buddhist art and wondered who or what is represented in these colorful paintings (known in Tibetan as thangka), what the various objects in the paintings symbolize, or how the paintings are used in the practice of Buddhism, Images of Enlightenment may answer your questions. Concisely written for a western audience of general readers by two English students of Tibetan Buddhism, this book also provides an introduction to basic Buddhist principles and practice, as well as a brief history of Tibetan Buddhism and short biographies of some of its greatest teachers.

Images of Enlightenment is organized around 32 full-color plates, paintings by Andy Weber, a UK-based artist trained in Nepal by refugee Tibetan painters and now himself a widely traveled and respected teacher in Europe and North America. (See the artist's website for more examples of his work and his current teaching schedule.) Each chapter of the book begins with a theme, followed by explanations of the handful of paintings that best represent them. The first chapter on the life of the Buddha and the basics of Buddhist philosophy, for example, includes descriptions of paintings of the Buddha, stupas, and the Wheel of Life.

As an introductory text, the authors cannot hope to cover the nearly 200 deities of Tibetan Buddhism. They manage, though, to provide an informative, well-written, and properly illustrated volume covering some of the most popular images. If you'd like to learn more about the methods and materials used in painting thangka, you might like to see Jackson and Jackson's Tibetan Thangka Painting: Methods & Materials. The paintings used in this book, while well executed, are quite simple and not cluttered with many of the background items found in many thangka. There is, therefore, little in this book explaining many of the minor elements of Tibetan painting. For a more thorough treatment of symbolism and iconography, see Robert Beer's A Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols. If you'd like to see larger and more elaborately and finely detailed thangka, have a look at two collections in Romio Shrestha's Celestial Gallery and Goddesses of the Celestial Gallery.

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Written by experts who spent years living in India to study Tibetan Buddhism and its art, Images of Enlightenment: Tibetan Art in Practice is a straightforward, plain-terms guide to the rich history, legends, and spirituality expressed through Tibetan Buddhist sacred art. 32 full-color plates illustrate Images of Enlightenment, while the text describes the symbolic self-transformation and expressions of enlightenment depicted. Chapters survey different paths and aspects of Buddhism as expressed through art, including the Bodhisattva Path, and the Path of Bliss and Emptiness. Images of Enlightenment is especially recommended for students, scholars, and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.

I bought this for my Ipad, and was disappointed the Kindle edition does not include the color plates. It doesn't appear to even include the plates in black and white. At least, there are no hyperlinks in the index to the plates. Text is interesting, but loses context without the illustrations.

It is a simple, basic, easy to understand introduction to the beautiful images, meanings, and the historical background of the tibetan buddhist images for practice ("yidam", erroneously translated as "god" or "goddess", but the real meanning is "a hidden potential for your ilumination and transformation who live inside of you, and waits for awaken"). But, if you will practice in a daily basis for a long time, you will need the original images, because this ones are so incompletely painted. They are useful just for the very beginners. A Buddhist monk.

Though I am an SGI Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhism intrigues me with their beautiful art. Mr. Landaw clearly describes each entity and Mr. Andy Weber beautifully illustrates in color each image. If you have ever wanted a deeper understanding into Tibetan images, I highly recommend this book

If you would like to learn some initial words about Budism (tibetan) buy this book. It's amazing. I read this in two days. Say a lot of the History and meaning f some terms, that even practicing, I never knew the meaning and the sense for this. Try it.

I have spent many hours perusing the large print version of this stunning book [each page about 3x2 feet, if i remember correctly], and it's worth every penny. But the kindle version has only poorly reproduced black and white copies of those images, way too dark and unclear to be of any real use. If you are only after the text, then go right ahead, but the real beauty of this book lies in it's stunning high definition reproductions of the images, and the kindle version does an appalling job of those.
But do yourself a favour and check out the large format print version.

The main attraction of this book is the beautiful color plates from Andy Weber. However the Kindle edition has only low-resolution dark-contrast grayscale images. The Kindle version is not worth purchasing unless this gross oversight is corrected.

This is an excellent book for all those interested in the practice of Deity Yoga. Written by Westerners with a very clear insight into the elements and art of the practice.