Page 53 - Maitri CollectionAsian Art Bonhams

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A GILT LACQUERED AND POLYCHROMED WOOD Before Akshobya’s ascendancy, Vairocana was of primary importance
MANUSCRIPT COVER WITH SARAVID VAIROCANA among the Buddha families in early Buddhist Tibet, where a statue of
AND THE WISDOM BUDDHAS Saravid Vairocana was installed at the center of at Tabo monastery
TIBET, CIRCA 14TH CENTURY founded in 966 in Western Tibet (see Klimburg-Salter (ed.), Tabo,
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61527 Milan, 1997, p.97, fig.61).
9 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. (24.1 x 62.3 cm)
The short sides of the cover have been skillfully carved with figures
of Vajrapani, Shakyamuni, and Prajnaparamita. According to Heller,
$15,000 - 20,000
the practice of carving the sides is possibly specific to the Western
Himalayas, as no such examples have been documented from other
西藏 約十四世紀 木雕彩漆毗盧遮那佛護經板 regions of Tibet. Similar book covers have been photographed at
monasteries in Dolpo, Limi, and Mustang: geographic locations where
This glorious and rare manuscript cover survives with its original gold, wood was more plentiful. An example with comparable carving is
red, green, and ultramarine pigmentation. Its composition features the published in Weldon, Early Tibetan Manuscript Covers, London, 1996,
five Tathgathas deeply carved into lotus roundels, with the distinctive no.15.
representation of four-headed Saravid Vairocana at the center. The
Cosmic Buddhas are guarded by a protective deity at each center of Published
the outer border, interspersed among scrolling vines from which are Marcel Nies Oriental Art, Body, Speech & Mind, Antwerp, 2006, pp.36-7.
blooming plump lotus buds of alternating colors, redolent of the those
seen on the necklaces of Tathagathas in 12th-14th-century thangkas Provenance
(cf. Kossak & Casey Singer, Sacred Visions, New York, 1999, pp.54- Private Collection, New Zealand, 2000s
61, 80-3, 104-8 & 154-5, nos. 3-5, 13, 14, 23, & 42.) Marcel Nies Oriental Art, Antwerp, 23 January 2007

THE MAITRI COLLECTION OF INDIAN, HIMALAYAN & SOUTHEAST ASIAN ART | 51