[Buddha-l] angels

jkirk jkirk at spro.net
Tue May 24 09:39:33 MDT 2005


Hi Gary,

I never saw a dakini image with wings and so she couldn't be an angel,
right?

I never saw any Buddhist image of any sort with wings, which come to think
of it is an interesting lack considering that divine creatures with wings
were known to cultures surrounding or interpenetrating Buddhist areas from
the beginning. (Don't ask me for evidence now, I'd have to spend hours
checking this up. If this really intrigues you, the evidence is there. Start
with winged Zoroastrian creatures,  winged horses like Pegasus (a Latin name
but he had a Greek myth for himself, etc.) Oh yes, and as I recall there
were a few winged women in the Gandhara sculpture record. But were they
Buddhist deities or Greek ones?
John Huntington could answer the Gandhara question so far as Buddhism is
concerned I'd guess. You could query him on the Indology list. If your'e not
on it I could put your question for you. The better place to look is
probably in "arts" not texts.
Joanna
===============
> > There aren't any. Buddhists don't do angels.
>
> Dakinis?
>
> (_not_ a cross between a daiquiri and a martini...)
>
> James Ward
>
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