A preliminary note on the mandalas of the Bonpo tradition.

Within the vast framework of Tibetan Studies, the importance of the Bon tradition has now become well established, That notwithstanding, we may affirm that researches about Bonpo iconology are still at an inceptive stage, although we can now count on a number of seminal publications. In consideration of the state-of-the-art of the subjectmatter, the scope of this contribution will be restrained to the exposition of basic reflections, and to a presentation of five mandalas – which have been selected in virtue of their doctrinally representative character, and which appear to cogently transpose tantric principles in iconographic form – with the wishful thinking that the topic may attract further scholarly research, especially of a phenomenologically comparative nature, with respect to the much more renowned Buddhist component of the Tibetan mandala iconography.