Tabo | Assembly Hall | Mandala Sculptures

This gallery of 468 photographs contains the complete documentation of the Tabo Assembly Hall clay sculptures beginning with the central Vairocana. The other figures of the Tabo Vajradhatumandala sculptures are arranged clockwise beginning with the gate-keeper to the right of the entrance on the east-wall. The documentation was done in 1994. In the same year the Archaeological Survey of India began the restoration of the sculptures for the millennium celebrations in 1996. The details of the sculptures are arranged from full views to details and from the head down with the last photographs showing details of the mounting and/or of the halos. At the end of the gallery are 46 pictures of fragments from the sculptures. These were most commonly found within the lotuses but did not necessarily belong to the sculpture they were found with.

The arrangement of the mandala within the Assembly Hall is shown in Quarters of the Tabo Vajradhatumandala, and the names of the deities are found in Names of the Tabo Vajradhatumandala Deities. This gallery complements the publication:

• Luczanits, Christian (2004) Buddhist Sculpture in Clay: Early Western Himalayan Art, late 10th to early 13th centuries. Chicago, Serindia.