Page 23 - Bonhams FINE CHINESE ART London November 2 2021

The results of Oxford Authentication Ltd.
thermoluminescence tests nos.C200f49,
and C200f50, dated 13 November 2000,
are consistent with the dating of this lot.
Oxford Authentication Ltd.公司熱釋光檢
測結果（2000年11月13日，編號C200f49與
C200f50）顯示年代與本拍品年代一致。

The present impressive figures are ‘protectors
of the four directions’, thus their Sanskrit
name lokapala, an appellation, which the
Chinese rendered as tianwang, or ‘Heavenly
King’. In Buddhist cosmology, they reside
on the four slopes of Mount Sumeru, the
legendary axis of the world, but their effigies
are placed in temples to protect the main
deity. Compare with two related figurines
of lokapalas with gilding, dated to 724 AD,
excavated from a Tang dynasty tomb at
Xinzhu County in Baqiao district, Xi’an, 1991,
illustrated in Tao yong: Xi’an wenhua jinghua,
Xi’an, 2014, pp.92-93, nos.127-128.

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