CREATING

THE UNIVERSE
DEPICTIONS OF THE COSMOS IN HIMALAYAN BUDDHISM

Eric Huntington

University of Washington Press

Seattle

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 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
A Note on Translations, Transliterations, and Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Introduction: Orienting Space and Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1 Cosmos in Texts: Explaining the Blueness of the Sky . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2 CoSmoS in the man ḍaLa: Salvation through Geography . . . . . . . . .63
3 Cosmos in Offering: Piling a Mountain of Treasures . . . . . . . . . . 109
4 Cosmos in Architecture: Sacred Space and Murals . . . . . . . . . . 169
Conclusion: Portraits of Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

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