Page 15 - September 20th 2021, Indian and Himalayan Art Christie's NYC

Property From The India House Collection
New York (Lots 401-405)

PROPERTY FROM THE INDIA HOUSE CLUB COLLECTION, NEW YORK
405
A RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF 中國 十八世紀 藏傳鎏金銅章嘉·若必多吉(1717-1786年)坐像
CHANGKYA ROLPAI DORJE (1717-1786)
TIBETO-CHINESE, 18TH CENTURY 來源:
Willard D. Straight (1880-1918年) 珍藏，入藏於1914年前。
6º in. (15.9 cm.) high
$15,000-20,000
PROVENANCE:
Willard D. Straight (1880-1918) Collection, acquired prior to 1914.

LITERATURE:
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24662.

The present bronze depicts Changkya Rolpai Dorje, the Third Changkya
of the Changkya Khutukhtu lineage, and the preeminent lama of the
Qing imperial court during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the
eighteenth century. Born to a nomadic family in the Gansu region,
Rolpai Dorje was recognized at an early age as the reincarnation of
the First Changkya, and was invested at Gönlung Monastery in Amdo.
After the monastery was destroyed by the Manchu army in retaliation
for a rebellion, the young Rolpai Dorje was brought to the Qing court
in Beijing at the insistence of the Yongzheng Emperor, where he was
educated alongside the future Qianlong Emperor. In his travels to Tibet,
Rolpai Dorje learned from the Fifth Panchen Lama and the Seventh
Dalai Lama, and later became the personal Buddhist teacher of the
Qianlong Emperor. His position as an important lama based in Beijing
(his residence was in the Yonghe Monastery, formerly the Yonghegong
Palace) meant he acted as an intermediary between the Qing court and
Tibetan and Mongolian religious institutions. He was also an important
scholar, translator and iconometrist, and helped to develop and codify
the representation of Buddhist figures in imperial art.
Representations of Changkya Rolpai Dorje can be easily identified by his
distinctive facial features and almost square facial shape. Additionally,
the hat with folded lappets and the sword and book on lotuses at his
shoulders (attributes of the bodhisattva Manjushri, of whom Rolpai
Dorje was considered to be an emanation) are also used to identify
him. His most distinctive feature, a congenital bump on his proper right
cheek, is not found on the present work, although not all bronzes display
this feature. Compare the present work with a similar representation
in the collection of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art,
illustrated by B. Lipton in Treasures of Tibetan Art: The Collections of the
Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, New York, 1992, p. 85, no. 31;
both figures are shown with their hands held in the same mudras, each
with the characteristic folded hat and the attributes of Manjushri, the
sword and book, on lotus blossoms at the shoulders (although the lotus
supporting the sword is missing from the Jacques Marchais example).
The Jacques Marchais example does, however, bear the congenital
mark on the proper right cheek, which as mentioned, is missing from
the present example.