Page 134 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022

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A BONE RITUAL APRON Several Tantric yidams are depicted wearing human bone aprons,
TIBET OR NEPAL, 19TH CENTURY OR EARLIER including Chakrasamvara, who is the central subject of this example,
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4729 flanked by his retinue of yoginis. Initially such ritual attire was worn by
66 x 78 cm (26 x 30 3/4 in.) life-size sculptures of deities and by spiritual masters during rituals
involving the dissolution of their egos into that of the yidam (cf. Marsh
HKD80,000 - 120,000 in, “Mirrors of the Heart-Mind,” Huntington Archive, 1998). Later,
they were often worn by monks and lamas during public festivals
西藏或尼泊爾 十九世紀或此前 骨雕瓔珞裙 and ceremonies, including masked dances in which the performers
meditated on and transformed themselves into dakinis, yidams, and
dharmapalas (see Ramos, Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution, 2020,
p. 168).

Another crisply-carved example with a similar ornamental arrangement
and tasseled bells was sold at Christie’s, New York, 23 March 1999,
lot 107 (published in Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet, 2020, p.
263, no. 336). Also compare a group of bone aprons from the George
Sheridan Collection sold at Bonhams, London, 9 June 2014, lots 202,
203, 414 & 415.

Provenance
Private Collection, United Kingdom, by early 1980s

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