Page 48 - 2020 September 23 Himalyan and Southeast Asian Works of Art Bonhams

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A COPPER INLAID COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF SONAM ZANGPO
TSANG, CENTRAL TIBET, 15TH CENTURY
A Tibetan inscription at the back of the lotus base, translated: “Pago Sonam Zangpo.”
Himalayan Art Resources item no.68303
5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm) high

$40,000 - 60,000

藏中 十五世紀 錯紅銅索南桑波銅像

A distinctive feature of this uplifting portrait is the artist’s creative use of copper inlay alternating
between the primary and secondary tiers of the base’s lotus petals—as well as to sections of
the monastic robe. Two related 15th-century portrait bronzes immediately come to mind. One
is a figure of Shalupa Sanggye Pelzang (Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2017, lot 3274). The
other is a portrait of the Sakya lama Sonam Gyaltsen, which Rhie traced back to the Pelchor
Chode, a Sakya enclave in Gyantse, Tsang Province, citing a host of other portrait sculptures
there with this same feature (Rhie & Thurman, A Shrine for Tibet, New York, 2009, p.20, fig.5).
Additionally, a portrait of Gayadhara (Bonhams, New York, 14 September 2015, lot 22) and a
figure of Buddha (Bonhams, Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lot 124) are two further 15th-
century bronzes exhibiting this special use of copper inlay from Tsang.

The bronze’s Tibetan inscription names its subject as Sonam Zangpo. Three historical figures
from the 14th-15th-centuries share that name–the seventh abbot of Katok (1295-1357,
Nyingma school), the abbot of Joden Gendungang (1341-1433, Jonang school), and the abbot
of Densatil (1380-1416, Pagdru Kagyu school). Both the regional characteristics of this bronze
and the fact that the Jonang school arose from the Sakya suggest the second is the most likely
candidate: Joden Gendungang, Nyakpuwa Sonam Zangpo (1341-1433). The crossed mala
held in both hands by this figure is a common attribute of Jonang teachers, further supporting
this conclusion (cf. Bonhams, New York, 13 March 2017, lot 3093). Nyakpuwa Sonam Zangpo
was a student of the Jonang school’s founder, Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (1292-1361), and
became a teacher of many great masters of the 15th century.

Exhibited
Casting the Divine: Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New York,
2 March 2012 – 11 February 2013.

Provenance
The Nyingjei Lam Collection
On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996 – 2005
On loan to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005 – 2019

46 | BONHAMS