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...

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...

Religion pervades many aspects of Hindu life and assumes many forms. Read about Hindu practices in this short essay and view a piece of artwork depicting a woman worshipping at an outdoor shrine.

Over the centuries, two main branches of Buddhism emerged: Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. Read a description of each of these forms of Buddhism.

While there is no one text or creed that forms the basis of all Hindu beliefs, several texts are considered fundamental to all branches of Hinduism. Learn about the Vedas, Mahabharata, and Ramayana in this article.

Buddhism was introduced into Tibet from India and China beginning in the 600s. Over the succeeding centuries, Buddhism became the dominant cultural form in Tibet, exerting a powerful influence not only over religion, but also over...

Bon, Tibet's indigenous belief system, is a high form of religious ritualism primarily concerned with righting the causes of human ailment and misfortune and coexisting with the underlying forces of the universe. It focuses on the...

This figure represents a Shinto goddess; her name is not known. She is depicted as an aristocratic woman, dressed in a thick kimono-like garment. Shinto images like this one were not meant to be seen but were kept hidden in movable...

The 53 m high tomb built in ad 1006 for Qabus Ibn Voshmgir, Ziyarid ruler and literati, near the ruins of the ancient city of Jorjan in north-east Iran, bears testimony to the cultural exchange between Central Asian nomads and the...