Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Cabinet for Storing Offerings
This black cabinet was once stored in the gongkhang of an unknown temple in Tibet. Forbidden to the uninitiated, the gongkhang is a special room set aside for the worship of wrathful deities, where only the initiated monks of the...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Prayer Wheel
Prayer wheels are an example of Buddhist technology. This technology allowed the faithful to multiply the number of prayers they expressed by millions. This is because prayer wheels are filled with copies of mantras (sacred spells...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Images of Enlightenment: Aniconic vs Iconic Depictions of Buddha
Some of the earliest depictions of the Buddha reaching enlightenment appear as sculptural friezes on the exterior of sacred Buddhist monuments known as stupas. View pictures of these friezes and read the history of Prince Siddhartha in...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Buddhist Text About the Bodhisattva Manjushri
This Tibetan manuscript is one of the oldest objects in the museum's Tibetan collection. It consists of twenty-two loose pages. The text is written in U-chen script, in pure gold ink, which has been applied on a ground of lapiz lazuli...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The Buddhist Deity Mahakala as a Brahman
Mahakala Bramanarupa is one of over 70 different deities of the Mahakala type. These are wrathful deities particularly adept at quelling monsters and overcoming demons, whether they be outer, inner or secret. Some deities, such as...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Mandala of the Buddhist Deity Chakrasamvara
A mandala is a schematic diagram that portrays the sacred environment of a particular deity. The mandala is used by practitioners as a guideline for meditation. It helps people visualize the way in which they will restructure the world...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Tibetan Thangka Painting (Sacred Pictures)
In Tibet, religious paintings come in several forms, including wall paintings, thangkas (sacred pictures that can be rolled up), and miniatures for ritual purposes or for placement in household shrines. Thangkas were commissioned for...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ryoanji (Peaceful Dragon Temple)
Read about the cultural and historical significance of Ryoanji and its rock garden in Japan.
Curated OER
Bookcover With Scenes From the Life of the Buddha
Life of the Buddha told through a series of art objects. Accompanying essay clarifies episodes in the Buddha's life story.
Curated OER
Model of a Stupa (Buddhist Shrine)
Life of the Buddha told through a series of art objects. Accompanying essay clarifies episodes in the Buddha's life story.
Curated OER
Reliquary (?) With Scenes From the Life of the Buddha
Life of the Buddha told through a series of art objects. Accompanying essay clarifies episodes in the Buddha's life story.
Curated OER
Illustrated Manuscript of the Lotus Sutra
Life of the Buddha told through a series of art objects. Accompanying essay clarifies episodes in the Buddha's life story.
Curated OER
Seated Buddha
Life of the Buddha told through a series of art objects. Accompanying essay clarifies episodes in the Buddha's life story.
Curated OER
Buddha's Descent From the Trayastrimsha Heaven
Life of the Buddha told through a series of art objects. Accompanying essay clarifies episodes in the Buddha's life story.
Seeker
Seeker: Week of 11 25 13: Oldest Buddha Shrine Dates Birth 6th C. b.c.
When was the Buddha, or Enlightened One, born, and when? The recent discovery of the oldest known Buddist shrine tells archaelogists more than we've ever know.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Standing Crowned Buddha With Four Scenes of His Life
This is an image of a crowned and bejeweled Buddha, standing on a lotus pedestal, surrounded by four other figures representing four famous scenes from the life of the historical Buddha. It dates from approximately 1050-1100 C.E. The...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
This is an image of the compassionate and merciful bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who are destined to become buddhas but postpone that final state in order to help humanity. The name Avalokiteshvara...
Smithsonian Institution
Freer | Sackler Galleries: Tibetan Healing Mandala
A site in response to the September 11 tragedies. Twenty Buddhist monks constructed a madala at the Sackler gallery.
Then Again
Then Again: Web Chron: The Tang Dynasty 618 907
This timeline traces the development of China's Tang Dynasty.
Curated OER
Unesco: Japan: Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu Ji Area
There are around 48 Buddhist monuments in the Horyu-ji area, in Nara Prefecture. Several date from the late 7th or early 8th century, making them some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world. These masterpieces of wooden...
Curated OER
Unesco: China: Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa
The Potala Palace, winter palace of the Dalai Lama since the 7th century, symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. The complex, comprising the White and Red Palaces with their ancillary...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: How to Identify a Buddha
The earliest surviving representations of the Buddha date from hundreds of years after his death, so they are not portraits in the usual sense. Buddha images vary greatly from place to place and period to period, but they almost always...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The Buddha Shakyamuni
How do we recognize this figure as Shakyamuni Buddha? This is the traditional representation of the Shakyamuni Buddha or the historical Buddha. The statue shows the moment of his enlightenment at a place called Bodh Gaya in India, which...