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A SILVER INLAID COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF A A SILVER INLAID COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF A KAGYU LAMA
KAGYU HIERARCH TIBET, CIRCA 14TH CENTURY
TIBET, 13TH/14TH CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no.68466
Himalayan Art Resources item no.68484 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm) high
4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm) high
$3,000 - 5,000
$15,000 - 20,000
西藏 約十四世紀 銅錯銀噶舉喇嘛像
西藏 十三/十四世紀 銅錯銀噶舉上師像
Its surface rubbed smooth from sustained propitiation, this small figure
While clearly a portrait of a Tibetan lama, this rather unique bronze must have been treasured dearly as a personal icon. Clad in distinctive
departs from convention by affording its subject physical features Kagyu robes, the lama’s eyes are inlaid with silver, suggesting his
of Shakyamuni Buddha. This includes the arrangement of the spiritual attainment. Compare a miniature portrait of Phagmodrupa
robe in ‘open mode’, the elongated earlobes, and the tiny cranial sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2017, lot 3232.
protuberance (ushnisha) on the top of the head. The portrait is almost
certainly of an eminent hierarch from the early Kagyu orders which had Published
a tradition of considering key figures as reincarnations of Shakyamuni, David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of
starting with the great Phagmodrupa (1110-70) (Dinwiddie (ed.), Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999,
Portraits of the Masters, London, 2003, pp.132-3). This reading is p.130, fig.46.
consistent with the sculpture’s portrayal of a stout, brassy figure
wrapped in a heavy meditation cloak with a rounded silhouette, as Exhibited
is frequented in early Kagyu portraits. For example, compare the The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
following 12th-to-14th-century portraits of The First Gangkar Lama Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 6 October – 30 December
Dragpa’I Pel, of Lama Shang, and of another Kagyu lama formerly in 1999.
the Nyingjei Lam Collection (Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2017, Stable as a Mountain: Gurus in Himalayan Art, Rubin Museum of Art,
lot 3231 and Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lots 103 & 116, New York, 13 March – 13 July 2009.
respectively). Casting the Divine: Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Rubin
Museum of Art, New York, 2 March 2012 – 11 February 2013.
Published
David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Provenance
Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, The Nyingjei Lam Collection
pl.35, pp.162-3. On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996 – 2005
F. Ricca, Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell’ Himalaya, Turin, On loan to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005 – 2019
2004, fig.IV.37.

Exhibited
The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 6 October – 30 December
1999.
Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell’ Himalaya, Palazzo
Bricherasio, Turin, June – September 2004.
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
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