[Spirituality] Tibetan Mandalas, bsod nams rgya mtsho, Ngor collection

Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983. 2 vols., published in 300 unnumbered sets. The first vol. with the images, 300 p., in 5-colour print. The second vol. with the textual explanation of the iconography in the first vol., 340 p., in 2-colour print. The text in English, Japanese, Tibetan and Sanskrit (in Roman letters). An exceptionally detailed depiction and extraordinarily beautiful reproduction of the famous collection of 139 mandalas kept in the Ngor monastery.

Square elephant folio (51x51 cm.). The cloth covers and bindings distinctively coloured, gold-yellow for the image part with polychrome mandala on the protective cover and silver mandala in gold background on front cover, endpapers gold; and dark brown for the text vol. with polychrome mandala on the protective cover and silver front cover with a gilt-stamped mandala, silver endpapers. The whole illustrates the rGyud sde kun btus; a fountain of esoteric and tantric knowledge. The text part gives an extensive analysis and a history of the collection by the head of the "Sa skya" school, an explanation of the system of the "rGyud sde kun btus" and a complete list of the Deities, as can be identified in every individual Mandala, together with the relevant basic texts in Sanskrit and rGyud sde kun btus text for every individual study. Sl. stained and dam. cover. The bindings with pictures and text in very good quality. (total 2)