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The back of the sculpture also reflects critical aspects of its history. Beautifully cast but
relatively unfinished, it includes three metal plates covering openings where consecration
materials were inserted into the hollow-cast, lost-wax sculpture. This practice, unknown in the
Kathmandu Valley but commonly practiced in Tibet, is also seen in Khasa Malla works that
were brought to the West Tibetan regions of their kingdom. Likewise, the blue pigment in the
hair is a common feature in Tibetan culture but not used in Kathmandu Valley works. It appears
in other Khasa Malla bronzes, including an Avalokiteshvara sculpture in the Claire Ritter
Collection, New York and in a Shadakshari Lokeshvara sculpture in the Mr. and Mrs. John
Gilmore Ford Collection, Baltimore.12 At least three other Khasa Malla sculptures represent
Shadakshari Lokeshvara.13 The use of turquoise, the stone predominately featured in this
sculpture, is unusual but not unprecedented in Khasa Malla sculpture.14
Jane Casey, January 2015
1. Stella Kramrisch, The Art of Nepal, New York, 1964, fig. 51.
2. Published in Helmut Uhlig, On The Path to Enlightenment, Zurich, 1995, no. 64, pp. 112-
13. It is possible that in the Bonhams Avalokiteshvara, both (now missing) lotus stems were
held in the upper hands.
3. See B. Bhattacharyya, The Indian Buddhist Iconography (New Delhi, 2008), p. 178. He
states in his seminal publication, first published in 1924, that images of Shadaksari Lokeshvara
abound in Nepal, “both in groups and singly...and almost every monastery at Kathmandu
and Patan has got one in it.” Op. cit., p. 35. If the artist of this sculpture indeed intended to
represent Shadakshari Lokeshvara, the upper right hand would also have held a rosary (mala),
fashioned in another material and now missing.
4. The Indian Buddhist Iconography (New Delhi, 2008), Appendix B.
5. S.K. Saraswati, Tantrayana Art: An Album (Calcutta, 1977), p. XXVI.
6. Pratapaditya Pal, Nepal Where the Gods are Young (New York, 1975), fig. 16, pp. 74-75.
7. Published in Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, no. 97, p. 152.
8. Published in Amy Heller, Early Himalayan Art (Oxford, 2008), pl. 9, pp. 62-63; and fig. 22, p. 36.
9. Personal communication, Ian Alsop. See also Ian Alsop, “The Metal Sculpture of the Khasa
Mallas of West Nepal/West Tibet” asianart.com. Alsop discusses this feature on Khasa Malla
sculpture in op. cit., figures 4, 5. See also Ian Alsop, “The Metal Sculpture of the Khasa Malla
Kingdom”, Orientations Magazine (June 1994): 61-68; and “Metal Sculpture of the Khasa
Mallas” in Jane Casey Singer and Philip Denwood, eds. Tibetan Art: Towards a Definition of
Style (London, 1997), pp. 68-79.
10. Amy Heller, Hidden Treasures of the Himalayas (Chicago, 2009), p. 23.
11. Alsop, “The Metal Sculpture of the Khasa Mallas of West Nepal/West Tibet” asianart.com,
fig. 1.
12. Ian Alsop, “Metal Sculpture of the Khasa Mallas of West Nepal/West Tibet” asianart.com,
figs. 7, 8.
13. See figures 8, 9 in Alsop, “The Metal Sculpture of the Khasa Mallas of West Nepal/West
Tibet” asianart.com, and in an unpublished example in the Crocker Museum.
14. Ian Alsop, personal communication.
Referenced
HAR – himalayanart.org/image.cfm/41223.html
Published
Stella Kramrisch, The Art of Nepal, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1965, no. 51.
Carlton Rochell, Ltd., Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Selections from Robert and Bernice
Dickes Collection, New York, 2010
Nancy Tingley, Celestial Realms: The Art of Nepal, Sacramento, 2012, no. 16.
Provenance
William H. Wolff, New York before 1965
Robert and Bernice Dickes Collection New York
Carlton Rochell, Ltd, 2010
Private Californian Collection
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