Page 18 - Wrathful Images

he guardian deity Panjarnata Mahakala (Tib. Gur-gyi Gonpo) with a fearsome expression on his
Tbearded face, lips parted showing teeth and fangs, with piercing eyes and flaming brows and a
third eye on the forehead, snakes adorning the flaming hair, neck, earrings, armbands, bracelets, and
anklets, and one serving as a sacred cord (Skt. upavita) draped over the left shoulder and encircling
the corpulent waist, wearing a skull and chakra-wheel crown, a bone apron with pendant bells over a
flayed tiger skin loincloth, a scarf and a garland of severed heads around the shoulders, with hands
raised to hold a skull bowl (Skt. kapala, Tib. thod-pa) and flaying knife (Skt. kartika, Tib. drigu), both
now missing, and standing in a militant posture with legs bent at the knee, trampling a supine figure
on the separately cast lotus pedestal incised at the upper front surface with a six character Xuande
reign mark, “Da Ming Xuande nian shi”, and sealed beneath with a red painted copper alloy plate
incised with a vishvavajra (Tib. natsok-dorje).

This rare and finely cast Chinese gilt-bronze is the largest recorded Panjarnata Mahakala from the early
Ming dynasty, and a highly important imperial commission. Another large 51.6 cm Ming example from the
Nitta Collection, now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is published in The Crucible of Compassion
and Wisdom, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, cat. no. 32 (fig. 1) A number of small scale Yongle

此尊寶帳大黑天怖畏端嚴，張口露齒，怒目圓瞪，髯 論尺寸規格，明初所造寶帳大黑天銅鎏金像當以此尊
須捲曲，眉若熛焰，眉心開三眼。髮帶、頸鍊、耳飾、 御製珍品為魁。可比一明代例，51.6公分，新田集藏，
臂釧、手鐲及踝鐲皆作盤蛇形象，長纓斜挎左肩結於 現存台北故宮，載《金銅佛造像特展圖錄》，故宮博物
鼓腹，亦作蛇形。頭戴骷髏冠，腰纏虎皮套垂鈴骨圍 院，台北，1987年，編號32（圖一）。有永樂寶帳大黑
裙，有飄帶及人頭花環繞肩。雙手托抬，原一手捧嘎 天小像若干，如一尊，藏布達拉宮，拉薩，載烏爾里希・
巴拉盌、一手持金剛鉞刀，現均失佚；屈腿而立，腳踏 馮・施羅德，《Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet》，卷2，
仰臥一人。蓮台單獨鑄造，正面上方鐫有《大明宣德年 香港，2001年，圖版348A（圖二），及一清宮舊藏鐵
施》六字年款，座底帶封，封板以銅造，塗覆紅料，正 鋄金像，北京，載楊新等，《清宮藏傳佛教文物》，香
中刻十字金剛杵。

Right:
Fig. 1: Mahakala, Tibet, Ming dynasty, circa
15th century, 20¼ in., 51.6 cm, The Crucible of
Compassion and Wisdom, National Palace Museum,
Taipei, 1987, cat. no. 32.
圖一：大黑天，明代，約十五世紀，51.6公分，
《金銅佛造像特展圖錄》，故宮博物院，台
北，1987年，編號32

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