Page 11 - 2020 September 23 Himalyan and Southeast Asian Works of Art Bonhams

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A SILVER AND COPPER INLAID COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF Sonam Tsemo is commonly depicted wearing the thick outer cloak of
SONAM TSEMO a layman, with bunching folds around his biceps as he raises his hands
TIBET, 15TH CENTURY to forward the Dharma. Compare his physiognomy, especially the
A Tibetan inscription along the bottom rim of the lotus base, treatment of his hair, to another portrait of this master within a Sakya
translated: “Om svasti! This statue of Lobpon Rinpoche [Sonam lineage set at Ngor Monastery published in von Schroeder, Buddhist
Tsemo], for parents mainly, and all sentient beings, was created by the Sculptures in Tibet, Vol.II, Hong Kong, 2003, p.1213, no.333E. Also
family in order to obtain Buddhahood. May the results of cause and see Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2017, lot 3260.
effect be realized. Mangalam!”
Himalayan Art Resources item no.68307 Exhibited
5 1/2 in. (14 cm) high The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 6 October – 30 December
$20,000 - 30,000 1999.
What Is It? Himalayan Art, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 27
October 2005 – 14 June 2010.
西藏 十五世紀 錯銀錯紅銅索南孜摩銅像 Casting the Divine: Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Rubin
Museum of Art, New York, 2 March 2012 – 11 February 2013.
Sonam Tsemo (1142-82) was the son of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and
the second of The Five Founding Fathers of the Sakya order (Sakya Provenance
Jetsun Gongma Nga). He was the fourth to hold the office of Sakya Sotheby’s, New York, 18 December 1981, lot 213
Trizin (‘Throneholder’). Following his father’s death, Tsemo’s education The Nyingjei Lam Collection
at Kadam monasteries helped inform the monastic structure adopted On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996 – 2005
by the Sakya school. On loan to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005 – 2019

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