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A POLYCHROME WOOD FIGURE OF KALACHAKRA AND VISVAMATA
NEPAL, MALLA PERIOD, CIRCA 16TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4703
77 cm (30 1/4 in.) high

HKD600,000 - 800,000
尼泊爾 馬拉時期 約十六世紀 木雕彩繪時輪金剛像

Kalachakra, with four heads and twenty-four arms, embraces his consort,
Visvamata (also known as Kalachakri), with four heads and eight arms. They tread
on the Hindu gods, Kamadeva and Rudra, who flank kneeling attendants honoring
the divine Buddhist couple. A pair of Bhairavas either side of the central subject
round out this complex sculptural arrangment.

Kalachakra is a primary meditational deity (yidam) in Tibetan Buddhism, whose
symbolism represents the perfected union of wisdom and compassion culminating
in Buddhahood and the salvation of sentient beings. For an exhaustive treatise
on the Kalachakra Tantra, see Brauen, The Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan
Buddhism, 1997, pp. 97-102.

Representations of this deity in Nepalese sculpture are exceedingly rare. A
closely related example in stone from Sunil Dongol is published in von Schroeder,
Nepalese Stone Sculpture, Vol. II, pl. 376C. Also compare with a Tibetan 14th-
century gilt bronze Kalachakra and Vishvamata, bearing strong Newari features,
now preserved in Shalu monastery (von Schroeder, Buddhist Bronzes in Tibet,
Vol. II, 2001, p. 965, pl. 232C), and another formerly in the Goldman Collection,
(Rawson, Tantra, 1971, p. 61, no. 240). A related wood example of Bhairava sold
at Christie’s, Paris, 15 June 2004, lot 290, while another is in the Art Gallery of
South Australia (20045S5).

Provenance
Isidor and Elly Kahane Collection, New York and Zurich, by 1968
Thence by descent

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