Page 80 - Himalayan Art Macrh 19 2018 Bonhams

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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA
SAHASRABHUJA EKADASAMUKHA
BY SONAM GYALTSEN (A.15TH CENTURY), CENTRAL TIBET, CIRCA 1430
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61516
26 1/8 in. (67.7 cm) high

$1,000,000 - 1,500,000
西藏中部 1430年 銅鎏金十一面千手觀音像
銘文落款為索南堅贊之作

Published
Apollo, London, June 1968, p.CLX.
Apollo, London, August 1977, p.167, fig.10.
Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1982, pp.452-3, no.124D.

Provenance
Oriental Antiques Ltd, London, by 1968
Sotheby’s, London, 9 May 1977, lot 167
Private English Collection, 1977-2014

THE JAMCHEN AVALOKITESHVARA BY SONAM GYALTSEN
Written in collaboration with Jeff Watt, February 2018

Encapsulating the crescendo in Tibet’s gilt bronze casting tradition occurring in the 15th
century, this magnificent sculpture of the Lord of Compassion in his supreme form is a
central masterpiece by the hand of Sonam Gyaltsen (active 15th century) made around
1430, upon the completion of Jamchen monastery in Central Tibet.

Remarkably, all of these details are mentioned in the sculpture’s lengthy inscription. With
yet another named artist coming to light from the study of inscriptions, the discovery of
the master craftsman Sonam Gyaltsen provided by this bronze prompts us to consider
a paradigm shift in the field of Tibetan art history, away from the ever-more questionable
narrative of the ubiquitous ‘anonymous’ Tibetan artisan.

Although previously unattributed, other pieces now clearly by Sonam Gyaltsen have
long been lauded among the prized possessions of numerous international museums
for reflecting the zeitgeist of classical Tibetan gilded sculpture. They draw unmistakable
comparison with the present bronze, which provides the key to revealing the master
sculptor’s identity for the first time.

Its inscription also brings to light the phenomenal patronage of the Rinpung dynasty
(15th-16th centuries), as yet little discussed in Tibetan art history’s popular circles, whose
seat of power was in Shigatse, Central Tibet, and who mostly patronized the Sakya
order. It names a famous Sakya teacher: Zhonnu Gyalchog; two brothers: Norbu Zangpo
and Palzang; and the artist: Sonam Gyaltsen. Written in Tibetan U-chen script along the
top of the lotus base’s circumference, it reads:

༄༄།སྭསྟི། སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་དངོས་གྲུབ་འབྱུང་གནས་འདི། རྒྱལ་སྲས་གཞོན་ནུ་རྒྱལ་མཆོག་བཀས་བསྐུལ་ནས། མི་དབང་ནོར་བཟང་དཔལ་བཟང་སྐུ་མཆེད་ཀྱིས། ལྷག་བསམ་
དག་པས་འཕགས་སྡེའི་མཆོད་གནས་བཞེངས། བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ལག་པས་རྩེ་ལས་འཁྲུངས། དགེ་བས་འགྲོ་ཀུན་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་མྱུར་ཐོབ་ཤོག།

“This source of the attainments of Lord Avalokiteshvara, requested by the bodhisattva
Zhonnu Gyalchog, [fulfilled] by the ruling brothers Norzang and Palzang, with pure
motivation to build a place of worship for noble beings, [then, this sculpture was made]
by the hands of Sonam Gyaltsen: May the accumulation of merit lead all beings to quickly
attain the omniscient stage.”

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