Page 56 - March 23 2022 Boinghams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art

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A BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRASATTVA
TIBET, PALA STYLE, 13TH CENTURY
4æ in. (12.1 cm) high
$20,000-30,000
PROVENANCE:
Cees van der Plog, 1995, by repute.
The Presencer Collection of Buddhist Art; Bonhams Hong Kong, 2 October
2018, lot 132.

LITERATURE:
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 61643.
The ‘Vajra Being’ depicted here is a primordial buddha as well as a highly-
accomplished bodhisattva, with a perfected understanding of ultimate
truth. He is the personification of the primary symbol of The Lighting Path.
This important Tibetan Buddhist deity is the primary and ceaseless source
of Vajrayana teachings. He manifests in the sambhogakaya (Tib. long-
ku) or celestial form or to assist in liberating all sentient beings from the
undesirable cycle of rebirth in samsara. The mantra of Vajrasattva (known in
Tibetan as Dorje Sempa) has the power to cleanse any sentient being of past
transgressions. He holds a ghanta (Tib. drilbu) symbolizing the female aspect
of wisdom and a vajra (Tib. dorje) symbolizing the male qualities of skillful
means and compassion. Together, these aspects indicate Vajrasattva’s fully
enlightened status.

The present work follows closely the Pala style of Northeastern India, which
permeated into Tibet in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Artisans from
India likely helped to establish workshops in Tibet following the fall of the great
Buddhist institutions in Northeastern India at the beginning of the thirteenth
century. Compare the treatment of the face and lotus base with a bronze
figure of Vajrapani in the Nyingjei Lam collection, illustrated by D. Weldon in
The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection,
London, 1999, p. 56, fig. 19.

西藏 十三世紀 銅金剛薩埵坐像
來源:
Cees van der Plog, 1995年 (傳)
The Presencer Collection of Buddhist Art; 香港邦瀚斯, 2018年10月2日, 拍品
編號132
出版:
“喜馬拉雅藝術資源” (Himalayan Art Resources), 編號61643

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