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Metal and Stone Vestiges
Religion, Magic and Protection in the Art of Ancient Tibet

Image 17a

This pictograph of a five-tiered shrine with a spherical top could either be a primitive form of the stupa or an alternative type of early Bon shrine. The vowel signs of a Buddhist mantra were superimposed on the bottom of the painting at a later date. It is not known if such pictographic compositions existed in the pre-Buddhist period or if they arose in the subsequent early Buddhist period.

all text & images © John Vincent Bellezza


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