The Gods of Northern Buddhism

About this book

A painted figure has many arms, an elaborate crown and an animal beneath its feet. Alice Getty provides the clues needed to identify it, explaining which gestures, emblems and companions distinguish one Buddhist divinity from another.

Her illustrated study surveys the gods and sacred beings represented in Tibet, Nepal, China and neighbouring traditions. Diagrams, images and descriptive entries connect religious iconography to ritual meaning and historical development. The terminology reflects early twentieth-century scholarship, but the work remains a useful guide to images that can otherwise appear bewilderingly complex.

Cite this edition

Alice Getty; general introduction translated from the French of J. Deniker; illustrations from the Henry Getty collection. The Gods of Northern Buddhism. Later reprint of the revised 1928 edition. The work originally appeared in 1914; the current physical copy is not represented as the 1914 first edition. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/books/the-gods-of-northern-buddhism