Two Tibetan Buddhist text printings
1. Pantheon of 300 Gods / 300 Icons (Tib.: Sku brnyan phrag gsum)
Pantheon of Three Hundred Gods was assembled and published by Changkya Rolpay Dorje (1717-1786), an advisor, artistic consultant of the Qianlong emperor (1736—1795) and a learned lama and widely published scholar.
The Tibetan names are given underneath, and each figure is accompanied by a dharani. The original wood blocks are still preserved, and prints are still procurable in Beijing[[#_ftn1|[1]]].
Pantheon of Three Hundred Gods served as the major source of information on Tibetan Buddhist iconography for Western scholar. It is evidential that the images in Rolpay Dorge’s pantheons made a big impact on Buddhist art during the Qianlong period onwards.
2. In Praise of [the sacred images of] All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
In Praise of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (zhufo pusa shengxiang zan; 諸佛菩薩聖像讚) contains 360 figures accompanied by 360 eulogies in Chinese. The figures are divided into twenty-three divisions and the figures in each division are numbered. The Tibetan and Chinese names of the divinities are given below and above; the Mongolian and Manchu names are given at the two sides[[#_ftn2|[2]]].
It is ascribed to Rolpay Dorje (1717-1786), a well known Tibetan Lama who was the state preceptor of the Qianlong emperor (1736-1795). This manuscript now belongs to the National Library of Beijing.
Sources:
Terese Tse Bartholomew, Thangkas for the Qianlong Emepror’s Seventieth Birthday, Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism, Marsha Weidner (ed.), U.H.P., Honolulu, 2001
Clark, Walter Eugene, Two Lamaistic pantheons, Harvard U.P. 1965, pp. x-xi
Entry by Lan Wu 04/01/07
[[#_ftnref1|[1]]] For further information regarding this pantheon, see Eugen Pander, Das Pantheon des Tschangtscha Hutuktu, Veroffentlichungen aus dem kgl. Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin, I, 2/3/, 1890, Albert Grunwedel (ed.)
[[#_ftnref2|[2]]] For further information concerning to this work, see Stael-Holstein, Remarks on the Chu Fo P’u Sa Sheng Hsiang Tsan, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Library, Vol. I, 1928