Description
Contents: Vol. I: Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Introduction. 1. Buddha and Buddha worlds. 2. Zi Khro – the cycle of the peaceful and wrathful deities. 3. Guru – the many faces of Padmasambhava. Vol. II: 4. Yi dam – the deities of the eight pronouncements. 5. Dakini -female tantric deities. 6. Dharmapala – guardians of the religion. Vol. III: 7. Indian and Tibetan masters revered in the rNin ma school. 8. Appendix. Prof. Dr. Adelheid Herrmann-Pfandt, born in 1955 in Gottingen, Germany, is a scholar of Religious Studies, History, Indology and Tibetology. Having studied in Erlangen and Bonn and holding a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion from Bonn University, and a Habilitation from Marburg University, she now teaches in the department for the Study of Religions in the Institute for Comparative Cultural Studies in Marburg University, Germany. Former publications include a monograph on goddesses and female symbolism in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, a critical edition of the lHan kar ma catalogue of early Tibetan translations of Indian Buddhist texts, a catalogue of a Tibet exhibition in Marburg, two anthologies and more than hundred research articles, contributions to lexicons and other small scriptures. Adelheid Herrmann-Pfandt has spent some years of research in India and Nepal, specializing in Tibetan Buddhism, women in Buddhism and Hinduism, Hindu and Buddhist religious iconography and, more recently, religion in Hindi cinema. A current research project focusses on religion and violence, especially human sacrifice, and includes non-Asian cultures as well.