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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF GAMPOPA A SILVER AND COPPER INLAID GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE
TIBET, 18TH CENTURY OF LAMA SHANG
Inscription translated, ‘Homage to Candraprabhakumara of Dakpo’. TIBET, 13TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.2262 Himalayan Art Resources item no.2268
5 5/8 in. (14.5 cm) high 3 1/4 in. (8 cm) high
US$10,000 - 15,000 US$15,000 - 20,000
西藏 十八世紀 銅鎏金岡波巴像 西藏 十三世紀 鎏金錯銀錯紅銅喇嘛向銅像
Gampopa (1079-1153) is depicted wearing the red hat of the Dakpo Zhang Yudrakpa Tsondru Drakpa (1122-93), more commonly
Kagyu order he founded. His right hand is in the gesture of teaching, known as Lama Shang, is identified by his distinctive broad features,
while his left holds a doctrine – a nod to him being the Kagyu hairline, posture, and patchwork robe, conceived here with silver and
tradition’s first author. The bronze’s lotus petals are cast in the circa copper inlaid hems. His master was Gonstul (1116-69), a nephew of
16th-century Tsang style of Central Tibet. However, the gilding, and Gampopa, and the abbot of Densatil monastery, which made him the
the fastidious treatment of his robe with folds in relatively low relief are foremost leader among the Kagyu at the time.
more in keeping with circa 18th-century production in Derge, Eastern
Tibet, suggesting the lotus base may be a deliberate archaism. At one point in the mid-to-late 12th century, Lama Shang was the
most powerful ruler in Tibet, controlling most of the province around
Published Lhasa through martial campaigns following the founding of his Tsalpa
Portraits of the Masters, pp.158-9, no.27. Kagyu order. In conjunction with the Drigungpa Sonam Rinchenpel
Huang Chunhe, Xizang Dansatisi Lishi Yanjiu, Beijing, 2016, p.45. (lot 3236), the order was the first to make joint contact with the
Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (c.1155-1227), but Lama Shang’s lineage
Published & Exhibited would eventually recede from the political stage as the Drigung,
Monasterios y Lamas del Tibet, p.168, no.115. Karma Kagyu, and Sakya ascended. The bronze compares favorably
to an ungilded example recently sold at Bonhams, Hong Hong,
29 November 2016, lot 103. Also see Xia (ed.), Pu Ti Miao Xiang,
Shenyang, 2001, p.50, no.47.
Published
Portraits of the Masters, pp.176-7, no.36.
Published & Exhibited
Monasterios y Lamas del Tibet, p.170, no.118.
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