Page 127 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022
P. 127
1051 The handle fashioned in the shape of a flattened scorpion represents
A GILT COPPER ALLOY SCORPION SWORD HANDLE OF the destructive and deadly weapon of the protective deity Begtse
BEGTSE CHEN Chen. It is most likely that such a ritual armament would have been
TIBET, 17TH/18TH CENTURY held by a monk invoking the deity through costume in a ritual Cham
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4741 dance, as shown in a black and white photo of a performance in
12.5 cm (4 7/8 in.) long 1930s, (Tsultem, Mongolian Sculpture, Ulaanbaatar, 1988).
HKD15,000 - 30,000 Compare with a complete sword in the Triay Collection, (Nathalie Bazin
et al., Rituels tibétains: Visions secrètes du Vème Dalaï Lama (1617 –
西藏 十七/十八世紀 銅鎏金大紅司命主蝎形寶劍柄 1682), 2002, p. 146, no. 106).
Provenance
Private California Collection, acquired in the 1980s
IMAGES OF DEVOTION | 125
