This page brings together the sacred images of Bön, the Yungdrung Bön tradition of Tibet: which figures are venerated, the signs that identify them, how they are arranged on the altar, and where they resemble and differ from the sacred images of Tibetan Buddhism. The library uses photos of real paintings and statues now kept in museums or monasteries, and does not redraw portraits of holy figures. The only drawing on the page is a diagram of an altar. Under each photo are the photographer's name and the licence. Openly licensed photos of Bön objects are still very rare, so many figures are so far described only in words.
IWhat Bön followers place before them in worship
Bön (Yungdrung Bön, meaning eternal Bön) is a tradition of Tibet. Its followers believe that the teaching was given by Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche in the land of Olmo Lungring, then reached the kingdom of Zhangzhung around Mount Kailash, and only after that entered Tibet. It is a religion with a great many images: statues, thangka scroll paintings, murals, small painted cards, stupas and scriptures all have their place on the altar.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Religion Main Page (Jeff Watt). Shenten Dargye Ling, Le Bön. Wikipedia, Bon.A guide written by a Bön practitioner explains the altar through three supports. Statues and thangka paintings stand for enlightened body. Scriptures stand for enlightened speech. The stupa (chorten) stands for enlightened mind.
Source: Raven Cypress Wood (Nine Ways, the website of a Bön practitioner), Mandala of the Divine: The Yungdrung Bön Altar.At first glance, a Bön shrine looks very much like a Tibetan Buddhist one. The Rubin Museum, which held the first exhibition of Bön art from October 2007 to April 2008, also reminded visitors that they must train the eye to see what is distinctively Bön. The sections below go through each group of images, then point out where they resemble and where they differ.
Source: Rubin Museum of Art, exhibition Bon: The Magic Word, 2007 to 2008. Rubin Museum of Art, Tonpa Shenrab with Episodes from His Life, C2006.66.610.How Bön relates to Buddhism is still debated. Britannica describes Bön as the indigenous religion of Tibet, later merged into Buddhism while also surviving as a religion of its own. Per Kværne uses the word Bön for a tradition that took shape from the 10th to the 11th century and calls it an unorthodox form of Buddhism. David Snellgrove also regards Bön as a form of Buddhism, though a heterodox one. Samten Karmay, on the other hand, takes seriously the Bön account that this is a separate tradition. Even so, Bön followers and Buddhists both agree that the two religions are distinct. The source of authority in Bön does not come from India but from Zhangzhung and the land of Tagzig. The library records these views and does not take sides.
Source: Britannica, Bon (Tibetan religion). Wikipedia, Bon.IITonpa Shenrab Miwoche, the founder
Tonpa means teacher. His life and previous lives are recorded in three works: the Dodü (one volume, twenty-four chapters, regarded as the oldest), the Zermig (two volumes, eighteen chapters, discovered in the 10th century) and the Zijid (twelve volumes, sixty-one chapters, discovered in the 14th century by Tulku Loden Nyingpo). According to the story, he was born into a royal family and at the age of thirty-one left the throne to follow a religious life.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Tonpa Shenrab Page. Wikipedia, Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche.Himalayan Art Resources records three main appearances of him in painting and sculpture: the peaceful appearance, Nampar Gyalwa and Tritsug Gyalwa. The particular signs that identify him are the lotus hat, the yungdrung scepter, the yungdrung staff and the gesture of the left hand placed over the right. He also appears in six forms to teach the beings of the six realms, and in twelve forms that correspond to twelve great events of his life, often painted as a set of twelve.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Bon: Tonpa Shenrab Iconography.Tritsug Gyalwa
ston pa khri gtsug rgyal baHow to recognize: The appearance of a Buddha in monastic robes, often with four sons who also became monks standing on either sideThis is the name of Tonpa Shenrab towards the end of his life, when he renounced worldly existence to become an ascetic. In this form he has the full appearance of a Buddha. A painting of his life in the Rubin Museum places Tritsug Gyalwa in the middle, with the scenes of his life arranged around him, each scene labelled in Tibetan written in gold.
Nampar Gyalwa
rnam par rgyal ba, Complete VictoryHow to recognize: Blue or green body, the right hand raised higher than the shoulder, palm facing forwardOne face and two arms, peaceful or slightly stern in expression. The left hand rests on the knee. He sits cross-legged on a flower throne in front of a palace. A story in chapter 50 of the Zijid tells that he took this form to help a Chinese king named Kongtse, whose temple had been destroyed by spirits and demons. His four monastic sons stand on either side of the throne, and the Four Transcendent Lords often appear above.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Nampar Gyalwa.As one of the four
ston pa gshen rab mi boHow to recognize: Seated among 250 enlightened ones arranged in rows, the right hand touching the ground and holding a scepterWhen he is painted as the fourth of the Four Transcendent Lords, he sits among two hundred and fifty enlightened ones. The archive of the University of Vienna describes a recent thangka at Shenten Dargye Ling Monastery: a dark blue body, the left hand in meditation, the right hand touching the ground and holding a scepter bearing a left-turning swastika.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, item 31207, Tonpa Shenrab in the set of four. University of Vienna (CIRDIS), Bön archive: thangka of Tönpa Shenrab Miwo.With the lotus hat and the scepter
How to recognize: Lotus hat, patchwork robe, a bowl in the left hand, a yungdrung scepter in the rightThe recent mural below brings together the particular signs that Himalayan Art Resources lists: the lotus hat and the yungdrung scepter, called chakshing in Tibetan. In the painting, both ends of the scepter carry the yungdrung shape.
The Rubin Museum writes that images of Tonpa Shenrab are often identical to those of Shakyamuni Buddha. To tell them apart one has to read the small scenes around the central figure. In one of the museum's paintings, the decisive sign is the scene of him riding in a chariot drawn by elephants, together with what appear to be his wife and children. For that reason the library calls a painting Tonpa Shenrab only when a museum or Himalayan Art Resources has identified it as such.
Source: Rubin Museum of Art, Tonpa Shenrab with Episodes from His Life, C2006.66.610.Olmo Lungring, his homeland
Bön followers believe that Tonpa Shenrab was born in Olmo Lungring, in the land of Tagzig to the west of Tibet, beside Mount Yungdrung Gutseg, meaning the mountain of nine stacked yungdrung. Paintings of this realm place the mountain in the middle with four large gardens around it, rings of islands beyond, and five enlightened ones in the top row.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Religion Main Page (Jeff Watt). Himalayan Art Resources, item 200040, Olmo Lungring (Rubin Museum of Art). Shenten Dargye Ling, Le Bön.
IIIThe Four Transcendent Lords and the peaceful deities
At the head of the peaceful deities are the Four Transcendent Lords (Deshek Tsozhi). Bön followers also call them simply Lhamo, Lhachen, Sidpa and Shenrab. Himalayan Art Resources notes that this set of four paintings is found in almost every Bön temple, holding a place similar to that of Shakyamuni Buddha with the Sixteen Arhats in a Tibetan Buddhist temple. Each of the four sits among two hundred and fifty enlightened ones, making together the one thousand enlightened ones of this age. The two hundred and fifty around Satrig Ersang are all female. Of the four, only Tonpa Shenrab was born and lived on earth.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, The Four Transcendent Lords. Himalayan Art Resources, item 31207, Tonpa Shenrab in the set of four. Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Religion Main Page (Jeff Watt).Shenlha Okar
gshen lha 'od dkarHow to recognize: White body, both hands in the gesture of meditation, crowned, on a lotus throne supported by elephantsHis name means the white light god of the shen, that is, the Bön priests. The 18th-century thangka in the Brooklyn Museum shows him wearing earrings, necklaces and bracelets, a dark green scarf and a red skirt. The backrest of the throne carries snow lions, dragons, makara sea creatures and a garuda. Around him are two hundred and fifty identical figures in rows. At the bottom are Tonpa Shenrab standing and a protector with nine heads and eighteen arms. Wikipedia also records another description, with a hook in the right hand.
Kunzang Akor
kun bzang a skorHow to recognize: The Tibetan letter A on the chest, both hands in the lap holding two lotus stemsThis is the meditational form of Shenlha Okar. Both hands rest in the lap, the left over the right, each holding a lotus stem. The blossom on the right supports a yungdrung, the one on the left a vase. Most surviving statues of Kunzang Akor date from the 14th to the 16th century. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art notes that statues of this kind were often commissioned in memory of someone who had died.
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Satrig Ersang and Sherab Chamma
sa trig er sangs, shes rab byams maHow to recognize: A female figure with a yellow body. Sherab Chamma holds a lotus and a water vessel, sometimes a vase and a mirrorSherab Chamma means Loving Mother of Wisdom. She is the principal female deity of Bön and the principal manifestation of Satrig Ersang. A recent thangka at Shenten Dargye Ling shows her golden yellow, holding a lotus and a water vessel, with two lions on her throne. The library has not yet found an openly licensed photo of either figure.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Sherab Chamma. University of Vienna (CIRDIS), Bön archive: thangka of Sherab Chamma. Wikipedia, Bon.Sangpo Bumtri
sangs po 'bum khriHow to recognize: Holds a banner, on a throne supported by birdsHe is the one who brings the beings of this world into existence and has a large role in the creation stories of Bön. Wikipedia describes him with a silver-white body, holding a victory banner or parasol in the right hand, the left hand in meditation, on a throne supported by snow lions or garudas. Himalayan Art Resources points out that he is easily confused with Drenpa Namkha, since both hold a banner. Sangpo Bumtri sits on a bird throne, Drenpa Namkha on a lion throne. The library has not yet found an openly licensed photo.
Source: Wikipedia, Sangpo Bumtri. Himalayan Art Resources, item 44528, Drenpa Namkha (metal sculpture). Himalayan Art Resources, Drenpa Namkha.Kuntu Zangpo
kun tu bzang poHow to recognize: A naked form without ornaments, or a form with ornaments and heavenly garmentsThis peaceful figure is painted in two ways. One is a naked body without ornaments. The other wears ornaments and the garments of the heavens. Either can be painted with a consort. The naked form of Kuntu Zangpo in Bön and in Buddhism (Samantabhadra of the Nyingma school) can look almost exactly the same. On the painting of Sanggye Lingpa in the Rubin Museum, he appears small at the very top: black, naked, seated in meditation.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Kuntu Zangpo (Bon). Himalayan Art Resources, item 200002, Sanggye Lingpa (Rubin Museum of Art).Kunzang Gyalwa Dupa
kun bzang rgyal ba 'dus paHow to recognize: Peaceful in appearance, with many faces stacked one above another and many armsHis name means the gathering of the victorious ones. He represents the powers of all the great deities of Bön and is the peaceful form of three of the fiercest: Welse Ngampa, Trowo Tsochog Khagying and Lhago Togpa.
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IVWrathful meditational deities and protectors
Himalayan Art Resources groups the deities of Bön into three broad categories: the emanations of Tonpa Shenrab, the peaceful deities and the wrathful deities. The wrathful group includes the meditational deities (yidam) used in tantric visualisation and the protectors. A fierce appearance here does not mean evil. The sources describe the weapons and the flames around the body as images of wisdom that cuts through greed, anger and delusion.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Deities Page. Himalayan Art Resources, Sipai Gyalmo.Welse Ngampa
dbal gsas rngam paHow to recognize: Blue-black body, nine faces, eighteen arms, the central hands holding a phurba at the heartHe belongs to the group of five meditational deities of the Se Fortress: Welse Ngampa, Lhago Togpa, Tsochog Khagying, Walchen Gekho and Purba Drugse Chempa. The three main faces are blue, white and red, each with three eyes. Above them are the faces of a tiger, a lion, a leopard, a dragon, a khyung bird and a water monster. He embraces a green consort, stands with the left leg bent and the right straight, and is surrounded by flames.
Trowo Tsochog Khagying
khro bo gtso mchog mkha' 'gyingHow to recognize: Wrathful, embracing his consort Khala DugmoHis name means the Supreme Wrathful One who towers in the sky. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records him as one of the five fortress meditational deities, associated with the Father Tantras of Bön. Like many Bön deities, he is also associated with guiding the dead.
Sipai Gyalmo
srid pa'i rgyal mo, Queen of the WorldHow to recognize: Black body, three faces, six arms, riding a red or a black muleShe is both a meditational deity and a protector, and one of the figures most often propitiated in Bön. She is the most wrathful form of Sherab Chamma. Her three right hands hold a victory banner, a flaming sword and a phurba peg. Her three left hands hold a trident, a yungdrung wand and a skull cup. She has six forms in six colours (white, yellow, red, black, blue and dark brown) and twenty-eight attendants. In some forms she rides a bird, in another she has a hundred faces and a thousand arms. She is easily confused with Shri Devi (Palden Lhamo) of Tibetan Buddhism. The library has not yet found an openly licensed photo that a museum identifies as Sipai Gyalmo.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Sipai Gyalmo. Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Protectors List.Takla Mebar
stag la me 'barHow to recognize: Red (or black) body, one face, two arms, a golden wheel in the right hand, nine swords in the leftHis name means the Tiger God blazing with fire. He is the wrathful form of a direct disciple of Tonpa Shenrab. Three round eyes, hair rising like flames, a crown of five dry skulls, a tiger-skin skirt, he stands with the right leg bent and the left straight within a ring of fire.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Tagla Membar.Midu and Nyipangse
How to recognize: Nyipangse has a red body and rides a red horseBoth appear in the list of protectors compiled by Himalayan Art Resources, together with mountain gods such as Amnye Machen. The source describes Nyipangse (also written Nyipangtsen) as a worldly protector, red in colour, riding a red horse. For Midu, the sources consulted give only the name and no description.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Protectors List. Himalayan Art Resources, item 73143, Nyipangtsen.VThe teachers who are venerated
Bön teachers are shown in every guise: lay people, monks and ascetics. Paintings of teachers mostly fall into four types: the three Dzogchen lineages, the monastic lineage with Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen in the centre, the Mother Tantra lineage, and the refuge field. Most surviving images of teachers belong to sets of initiation cards and lineage cards.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Teachers.Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen
mnyam med shes rab rgyal mtshanHow to recognize: A Bön lama's hat with two red lappets falling to the shoulders, both hands at the heart holding two lotus stems that support a sword and a bookHe was born in eastern Tibet in the 14th century and founded Menri Monastery in 1405. In paintings he wears orange and red patchwork robes and sits on a lotus and moon disc. The sword of wisdom on the right blossom and the book on the left are attributes of the deity Mawe Sengge, meaning that he was blessed with eloquence and wisdom. The painting in the Rubin Museum shows sixty-nine lamas around him, nearly all wearing the same kind of hat. A story tells that he flew so high that his hat was scorched by the sun. The library has not yet found an openly licensed photo that a museum identifies as him.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, item 200010, Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen (Rubin Museum of Art). Himalayan Art Resources, Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen. University of Vienna (CIRDIS), Bön archive: thangka of Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen. Wikipedia, Menri Monastery.Drenpa Namkha
dran pa nam mkha'How to recognize: A banner (parasol) raised high in the hand, seated on a lion throneHe is believed to have lived in the time of King Trisong Detsen, in the 8th century, when Bön was being suppressed, and to have hidden many Bön scriptures. The Bön tradition says he had two sons, Tsewang Rigdzin and Pema Tongdrol. Wikipedia also records another description, with a yungdrung scepter in the right hand and an eye on the sole of the foot. Himalayan Art Resources has a 14th-century thangka of him in a private collection. The library has not yet found an openly licensed photo that a museum identifies as him.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Drenpa Namkha. Himalayan Art Resources, item 44528, Drenpa Namkha (metal sculpture). Himalayan Art Resources, item 57059, Drenpa Namka, 1300 to 1399. Wikipedia, Drenpa Namkha. Wikipedia, Bon.Tapihritsa
ta pi hri tsaHow to recognize: A white body as clear as crystal, naked, without ornaments, seated in meditation within a ring of rainbow lightHe was born into a nomad family in Zhangzhung and lived in the 7th or 8th century. After nine years of practice at Senge Tap near Mount Kailash, he attained the rainbow body. He is a teacher of the Zhangzhung Nyengyu, the Dzogchen oral transmission of Zhangzhung, and gave the teaching to Nangzher Lopo in the guise of a young boy. The naked, unadorned body speaks of the primordial state of awareness. The library has not yet found an openly licensed photo of an object showing him.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Tapihritsa. University of Vienna (CIRDIS), Bön archive: thangka of Tapihritsa. Wikipedia, Tapihritsa.Sanggye Lingpa and New Bön
How to recognize: A yellow hat with a vajra at the top and a yungdrung on the frontSanggye Lingpa (1705 to 1735) belonged to New Bön, the movement that sought to bring Bön and Buddhism together. His hat carries the signs of both religions. His right hand holds a lotus stem supporting a sword and a book, and his left hand in the lap supports a wheel. On the table in front of him are a hand drum and a flat bell. The two disciples seated on either side are both linked with Gyalrong, a major Bön region in the east.
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Lineage paintings and tsakli cards
Tsakli are small painted cards used in initiation rites. The card below belongs to a 15th-century set of Bön cards and shows a figure standing within a many-coloured halo.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, item 32781, Initiation Cards. Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Teachers.
VIRecognizing a Bön sacred image
Per Kværne writes that at first glance Bön appears nearly indistinguishable from Buddhism in its doctrines, monastic life, rituals and meditation practices. The same is true of its images: the same lotus thrones, halos and patchwork monastic robes, the same division into peaceful and wrathful figures. Bön deities resemble Mahayana Buddhist deities in many respects, but they have their own names, their own iconography and their own mantras.
Source: Wikipedia, Bon.Yungdrung is the Bön sign of what is eternal. Its shape is a four-armed swastika turning to the left. It appears on the scepter of Tonpa Shenrab, on the lotus of Kunzang Akor, on the hats of teachers and in the name of the nine-storey mountain of Olmo Lungring. The library describes this symbol in words and does not publish a separate image of it.
Source: Wikipedia, Bon. Himalayan Art Resources, Kunzang Akor. Himalayan Art Resources, item 200002, Sanggye Lingpa (Rubin Museum of Art). Himalayan Art Resources, Bon Religion Main Page (Jeff Watt).
Himalayan Art Resources keeps a whole catalogue of easy confusions. Tritsug Gyalwa is confused with Shakyamuni Buddha. Nampar Gyalwa with his raised hand is confused with Vajrapani. Sipai Gyalmo is confused with Shri Devi (Palden Lhamo). Takla Mebar is confused with Hayagriva. The naked Kuntu Zangpo can look almost exactly like Samantabhadra of the Nyingma school. For that reason, a painting with no inscription and no known provenance is very hard to identify with certainty as Bön.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, Tritsug Gyalwa. Himalayan Art Resources, Nampar Gyalwa. Himalayan Art Resources, Sipai Gyalmo. Himalayan Art Resources, Tagla Membar. Himalayan Art Resources, Kuntu Zangpo (Bon).VIIBön altars and shrine halls
A guide by a Bön practitioner describes the order of the altar as follows. Scriptures are placed highest, with nothing above them. Next come the statues of the deities and the torma of the meditational deities. Images of teachers are placed lower. The lower levels are for the mandala rings filled with barley or rice and for the five daily offerings. This is the account of one practitioner, and the library has not yet been able to compare it with a text from Menri Monastery.
Source: Raven Cypress Wood (Nine Ways, the website of a Bön practitioner), Mandala of the Divine: The Yungdrung Bön Altar.The diagram follows the description of a single source. Each monastery and each household may arrange things differently.
The five daily offerings
The five outer offerings are butter lamps, clean water, food, incense and flowers, placed on the altar at dawn. According to this source, the usual practice is seven butter lamps, seven metal water bowls set in a row, spaced the width of a grain of rice apart, and seven torma moulded from roasted barley flour. The water is poured from left to right in the morning and emptied from right to left in the evening. Each offering corresponds to ending the suffering of one realm: lamps for the hell realm, incense for the hungry ghosts, water for the animals, food for humans, flowers for the demigods.
Source: Raven Cypress Wood (Nine Ways, the website of a Bön practitioner), The Five External Daily Offerings.Paintings, cards, torma and stupas
Bön thangka paintings are made with mineral pigments on cotton, the same technique as Buddhist thangkas. The set most often found in a shrine is the Four Transcendent Lords, frequently accompanied by a fifth painting of their combined mandala. Torma are figures moulded from dough and butter, and each deity has its own kind of torma. The research team of the University of Vienna photographed and named more than seventy torma figures on a Bön altar in Kathmandu in 2015. The story of Tonpa Shenrab tells that he taught people to use figures moulded from barley flour instead of killing animals as offerings.
Source: Himalayan Art Resources, The Four Transcendent Lords. Himalayan Art Resources, item 86934, Shenlha Okar (Brooklyn Museum). University of Vienna (CIRDIS), Bön archive: altar and torma, Kathmandu 2015. Wikipedia, Bon.Stupas (chorten) are found both on the altar, as small stupas, and in the courtyards of monasteries. The three white stupas at Kewzing below are of the kind placed in a courtyard. The library has not yet read a source from the Bön tradition itself describing the particular types of Bön stupa, so it does not describe them in detail.
Source: Raven Cypress Wood (Nine Ways, the website of a Bön practitioner), Mandala of the Divine: The Yungdrung Bön Altar.
VIIIMother monasteries, holy places and Bön country by country
In 2019, scholars estimated that there were about 400,000 Bön followers on the Tibetan plateau. In the mid-20th century there were about 300 Bön monasteries in Tibet and western China. The Bön canon is divided into two parts, like that of Tibetan Buddhism: the Kangyur, 179 volumes of the teachings of Tonpa Shenrab, and the Katen (also called the Tengyur), made up of commentaries.
Source: Wikipedia, Bon. Wikipedia, Bön Kangyur and Tengyur.Tibet: Menri, Yungdrung Ling and Mount Kailash
Menri, meaning medicine mountain, is the mother monastery of Bön. Its predecessor, Yeru Wensakha Monastery, was founded in 1072 and swept away by a flood in 1386. In 1405 Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen built Menri on the slope of Mount Shari Phowa in Topgyel, in the Tsang region. The abbot of Menri is regarded as the head of Bön. In 1959 Menri had about 400 to 500 monks. Yungdrung Ling, also in Tsang, was founded by Nangton Dawa Gyaltsen in 1836 and once had 300 to 500 monks. Mount Kailash, called Tise by Bön followers, was the centre of ancient Zhangzhung. Bön scriptures call the mountain by many names, among them the mountain of nine stacked yungdrung. The library has not yet found openly licensed photos of the old Menri or of Yungdrung Ling.
Amdo and Gyalrong (Sichuan, China)
Nangzhig in Ngawa is said to be the largest Bön monastery in Tibet, with about 800 to 1,000 monks. It was founded by Nyimadzin in the early 12th century and moved to its present site in 1754. Gyalrong is the homeland of Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen and of many of the abbots of Menri after him. The Rubin Museum calls this region an important centre of Bön culture on the eastern border of Amdo and Kham.
India: Dolanji and Sikkim
In 1967 Menri was re-established at Dolanji, in the state of Himachal Pradesh, under Lungtok Tenpai Nyima and Lopön Tenzin Namdak. Lungtok Tenpai Nyima became the 33rd Menri Trizin. The monastery has more than two hundred monks and has re-created the geshe training programme. In Sikkim, two Bön monasteries are often photographed: Kewzing, and Sog Yungdrung Ling at Yangang.
Nepal: Triten Norbutse, Dolpo and Mustang
Triten Norbutse Monastery stands at Nagarjun, on the western edge of Kathmandu, and was founded in 1987 by Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. Together with Menri at Dolanji, it is one of the two places that still offer the Bön geshe programme. Dolpo is a high mountain region that has kept many old Bön paintings. Himalayan Art Resources holds sets of the Four Transcendent Lords from Dolpo, among them a Tonpa Shenrab of the 17th or 18th century. The two photos below show a Bön temple at Ringmo and the village of Lupra in Mustang, with names and descriptions as given by the photographers.
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Bhutan
A group of rediscovered Bön texts is known as the Southern Treasure, revealed in Bhutan and southern Tibet. In Bhutan today the main form is what scholars call Buddhist Bön: Buddhists who keep some Bön rites while regarding Buddhism as their main tradition. The library has not yet found photos of Bön sacred images in Bhutan.
Source: Wikipedia, Bon.The West
Shenten Dargye Ling at Blou, in western France, was founded by Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche at the beginning of 2001 for the preservation, research, teaching and practice of Yungdrung Bön. A set of recent thangkas painted in Kathmandu hangs there, photographed and annotated by the University of Vienna. Ligmincha International, the organisation associated with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, has pages for individual countries. Its pages mention the Great Stupa for World Peace at Chamma Ling, Valle de Bravo, Mexico.
The website of Shenten Dargye Ling writes that the Dalai Lama regards Yungdrung Bön as the fifth tradition of Tibet, alongside the four Buddhist traditions.
Source: Shenten Dargye Ling, Le Bön.IXWhat the library is not sure of
Are you a Bön follower, a monk or a researcher, and have you found something inaccurate, or do you have a photo of your own to contribute? Please send it with its source to thayungkhiem@gmail.com. The library will correct the page and credit the contributor.
XPhotos and licences
Every photo on this page comes from Wikimedia Commons, under Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences. Authors and licences are given exactly as on the original file pages, read on 07/10/2026. The photos have only been reduced in size, with no change to their content. Click the name of a photo to go to its original file page. If you are an author and see an incorrect credit, please let the library know so it can be corrected.
XISources
The pages above were read in October 2026. If a page has changed its address, please let the library know so it can be updated.
?Quick Questions
Does Bön use statues in worship
Yes. Bön shrines have statues, thangka paintings, murals, tsakli cards, scriptures and stupas. The set most often found is the Four Transcendent Lords: Satrig Ersang, Shenlha Okar, Sangpo Bumtri and Tonpa Shenrab.
Is Tonpa Shenrab the same as Shakyamuni Buddha
No. Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche is the founder of Bön, born according to the tradition in Olmo Lungring. His image as Tritsug Gyalwa resembles Shakyamuni Buddha so closely that the Rubin Museum has to rely on the life scenes around him to tell them apart.
How can a Bön sacred image be told apart from a Tibetan Buddhist one
Look for the yungdrung, a left-turning swastika, where Buddhism would use the vajra. Look for the yungdrung scepter, the lotus hat, the letter A on the chest of Kunzang Akor and the particular names of the figures. Many images are very alike, so the inscription and the provenance remain the most reliable evidence.
Why do Bön followers circumambulate anticlockwise
The sources consulted only record the fact: at Mount Kailash, Bön followers walk anticlockwise, while Hindus, Buddhists and Jains walk clockwise. This direction matches the left turn of the yungdrung. The library has not yet read an explanation from the Bön tradition itself.
What is offered on a Bön altar
The five daily offerings are butter lamps, clean water, food, incense and flowers. A source by a Bön practitioner gives the usual practice as seven lamps, seven water bowls and seven torma of barley flour.
Why does this page have no separate image of the yungdrung symbol
The library describes the yungdrung in words: a four-armed swastika turning to the left, the sign of eternity in Bön. The symbol still appears as a small detail on the scepters, hats and lotuses in the photos of objects.