Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism is rapidly becoming a part of our cultural landscape, an element of human civilisation with its own universal appeal. Nevertheless public awareness remains limited concerning the great teachers and visionaries who over fourteen centuries formulated and expounded the system of thought which in the 21st century seems the most contemporary of the world religions. And yet there is a rich written tradition dating back at least 800 years documenting their lives and teachings, and an even more ancient tradition of portraiture in sculpture and painting which strove to capture both the physical and spiritual presence of these lamas.
