Jinah Kim

Local Visions, Transcendental Practices: Iconographic Innovations of Indian Esoteric Buddhism

The proliferation of an amazing array of gods and goddesses is one of the main characteristics of Esoteric or Tantric Buddhism. As seen in the complex manifestations of Esoteric Buddhist deities like Hevajra and Sambara, these gods are often fantastic and frightening in their appearance (fig. 1). Many incorporate not only the elements of movements invoked through multiple arms, active stance, and flame but also the terrifying qualities of bloodthirstiness and death often represented by garlands of severed heads, skull cups filled with blood, and animal hides. From the popular Western perception of Buddhism as a religion of meditation and philosophical pursuits, it may even be difficult to consider some of these images as belonging to a Buddhist tradition. It is no wonder that early writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries characterized Esoteric Buddhist iconography and Indian Esoteric Buddhism in general as corrupt, degenerate manifestations of the Buddhist

Painted Palm-Leaf Manuscripts and the Art of the Book in Medieval South Asia

What was the main principle behind the design strategies developed to prepare painted palm-leaf manuscripts in medieval South Asia? How did various Indic religious communities design their manuscripts? By bringing together surviving painted manuscripts of heterogeneous religious traditions as well as contemporaneous sculptural representations and textual sources relating to the ritual practices involving books, this study suggests that a book was conceived and designed as a temple in Indic context. Taking innovative design strategies of twelfth-century Buddhist manuscripts as a starting point, it also demonstrates how a larger, architectural approach can help us better understand the art of the book in India.