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refuge field
Becoming a Buddhist is often described as “taking refuge” in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings), and the Sangha (monastic community). A “refuge field” or “tree of refuge” is a particular genre of Tibetan painting that depicts all the important deities and historical masters of a particular Buddhist tradition in a tree-like arrangement. It shows an assembly of gurus and deities as they should be imagined when a meditator mentally takes refuge in them. These images often systematize the transmission lineage, or the uninterrupted line of teachers through which knowledge and tantric initiations and instructions were passed down, stretching back to the Buddha himself.
