An Illustrated History of the Mandala: From Its Genesis to the Kalacakratantra Tapa blanda -

Dr. Kimiaki Tanaka (b. 1955) studied Indian philosophy and Sanskrit philology at the University of Tokyo and received his doctorate in 2008 for his dissertation entitled "Genesis and Development of the Mandala in India." He also studied abroad as a visiting research fellow at the Nepal Research Centre in Kathmandu (1988-89) and held a Spalding Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford (Wolfson College) in 1993. He has taught at several universities in Japan, as well as conducted fieldwork in India, Nepal, and Tibet. From 1997 to 2015 he was academic consultant for the Hahn Cultural Foundation (Seoul), and he is also chief curator of the Toga Meditation Museum in Toyama prefecture, Japan, and vice-president of the Tibet Culture Centre International in Tokyo. He has published more than 50 books and 120 articles on esoteric Buddhism, Buddhist iconography, and Tibetan art. He is currently a lecturer at the Toho Gakuin, Keio University, and Toyo University.