Page 78 - Christie's, materpieces of Buddhist Art December 2, 2015 HK

Impressive because of its size and presence, this sculpture is
also noteworthy because of the unique iconography. The body
proportions, thin waist and full hips are all in keeping with the
date of the piece and can also be seen in the paintings from
the same general time period. The depiction of the eleven faces
is rare, as they do not follow any standardized textual tradition. ‘noble’ or ‘noble one’ is often placed at the beginning of the
However, this may not be so unusual because works prior to
this period also do not conform iconographically.
What does this really mean? It means that the art and the
literature don’t appear to correspond. One explanation for this
is because the original source literature was vague about many
of the iconographic details and this allowed for variations in
interpretation and artistic expression. This however was not
to last. After the 15th century, representations of the Eleven
Faced Lokeshvara became doctrinally set according to specific
traditions of practice. Luckily this magnificent example of the
Eleven Faced form fits in perfectly with all of the great early
Eleven Faced masterworks which did not suffer the rigid
iconographic orthodoxy of the later centuries.
The present work must be compared with some of the
very best early examples of Lokeshvara with eleven faces:
the Cleveland Museum of Art sculpture from West Tibet
(Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 59218), which has three
peaceful faces and seven stacked wrathful or combined
laughing and wrathful faces; the Los Angeles County Museum
sculpture from Kashmir, (Himalayan Art Resources, item no.
85865), which has a similar yet different arrangement of the
heads; another two examples can be seen with the late 12th
century Tibetan painting from the publication Sacred Visions
(Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 101329), and a 13th century
Tangut (Xia Kingdom) painting from the Hermitage Museum
(Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 31341), where the colours
and moods of the faces do not conform to the later literature;
and finally, the mural of the Eleven Faced Lokeshvara at Alchi,
(Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 99603), which follows a
standard configuration but has both a unique colour scheme
and a unique number of arms.
BACKGROUND:
Avalokiteshvara as a deity figure was first made famous in
the Buddhist sutra literature as a bodhisattva - an aspirant
to enlightenment. Later, in the Vajrayana system of Northern
Buddhism, from the Tantra literature of India, he was
acknowledged as a fully enlightened Buddha manifesting in a
vast number of meditational forms for the benefit of all living
beings.
The most common Sanskrit names for the deity are
76 Masterpieces of Buddhist Art 大俱足 — 經典亞洲佛教藝術
Avalokiteshvara, Lokeshvara, Avalokita, Lokanata and
Mahakarunika. All of the names relate to meanings such as
universal, lord, great lord, lord of the world, great compassion,
and all-seeing. In the Tibetan language he is Pagpa Chenrezig
(‘phags pa spyan ras g.zigs). The Sanskrit word arya meaning
name. Following those names, there are scores of others that
are used for more specific forms of Lokeshvara - peaceful,
wrathful and in-between.
There are a great many different sacred Buddhist traditions
that depict Lokeshvara and employ him as a special
meditational deity and as a subject for ritual worship. Most of
these traditions only use a simple initiation ritual and at best
a short daily ritual practice. However, in Tibet, Lokeshvara is
considered the patron bodhisattva, or patron deity, of the Land
of Snow and can be found worshipped in all of the Tibetan
Buddhist religious traditions. Preserved in these Tibetan
traditions are eight principal lines that contain extensive
teachings on the practice of Lokeshvara. Although claimed to
be very early in date by Tibetan authors, Lokeshvara doesn’t
really appear as a serious cult movement until after the 12th
century.
From among these eight principal lines of practice there are
only three that describe an eleven faced form of Lokeshvara
(Sanskrit: Ekadashamukha. Tibetan: chen re zi, shal chu jig.
English: the Eleven Faced Lord Gazing on the World). The
three are the King’s Tradition, the Bhikshuni Shri and the
Jowo Atisha. The other traditions either describe a four-armed
form (chaturbhuja) or leave the choice of Lokeshvara up to the
practitioner and whatever form that person is most familiar
with. In general, after the Eleven-Faced Lokeshvara became
popular in approximately the 5th and 6th centuries C.E., he
could be found in Indian art, along with art from Kashmir,
Central Asia, Dunhuang, Japan, Korea and China. The source
literature for this form of the deity is the Arya Avalokiteshvara
Ekadashamukha Nama Dharani. The source text for the 1000
armed Lokeshvara is the Mahakaruna Dharani Sutra written in
Sanskrit (Tripitaka #1060). Both were written in the first half of
the 1st millennium. The first text above only talks about having
eleven heads. It does not mention the configuration, colour
or disposition of the eleven heads. It also does not mention
anything about arms, number of arms or hand attributes. The
latter text which mentions the one thousand arms likewise
does not mention anything about the head, or a number of
heads.
Of the three Tibetan traditions of the Eleven Faced Lokeshvara
the Bhikshuni Shri and the Jowo Atisha have the same depiction