Page 50 - September 20th 2021, Indian and Himalayan Art Christie's NYC

This large, powerfully-cast gilt-bronze image of Chakrasamvara and master, Gampopa, Dorje Gyalpo withdrew from civilization in search of
Vajravarahi is an extraordinary example of Himalayan metalwork a quiet locale for meditation. He eventually settled in an area near the
sculpture at its finest. The work once adorned one of the great tashi Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River named Phagmodru (“Sow’s Crossing"),
gomang stupas of Densatil Monastery, and the couple representing and as such he was later known by the epithet Phagmo Drupa (“One
the virtues of wisdom and compassion would have towered over the from Phagmodru”), a name also given to the entire lineage and religious
worshippers of that institution from one of the top tiers of the stupa. As house that he founded. Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo’s teachings drew
the deity at the heart of meditative vision that spawned the great stupas a considerable following, although he and his disciples lived simply in
of Densatil, Chakrasamvara holds an especial importance in the context thatched huts high on the slopes above the Tsangpo. It was only after
of Densatil sculpture. Phagmo Drupa’s death that his two most important disciples, Taglung
Tangpa Tashi Pel and Jigten Gompo, the founders of Taglung Monastery
The monastery of Densatil, established southeast of Lhasa in 1179, and Drigung Monastery, respectively, ordered the construction of a
housed perhaps the most spectacular achievement of Himalayan permanent building to honor their master. The building preserved Dorje
bronze casting in all of Tibet. Its eight tashi gomang (“Many doors of Gyalpo’s thatched hut in one corner, and at the center of its eastern wall,
Auspiciousness”) stupas, each possibly up to five meters high, were they interred his remains within a large Kadampa-style stupa.
arranged in tiers completely covered with gilt-bronze plaques and
bedecked with a multitude of freestanding gilt-bronze Buddhist figures, The first tashi gomang was not constructed until 1208, and it was
an enormous display of the whole pantheon of Tibetan Buddhist erected at Drigung Monastery rather than at Densatil. Dorje Gyalpo’s
deities, expertly crafted by the finest Newar artists and local craftsmen. disciple, Jigten Gompo, while in deep meditation, had a vision of
Tragically destroyed in the second half of the twentieth century, all Chakrasamvara surrounded by a retinue of 2800 deities, high on the
that remains now are a handful of photographs taken by the Italian slopes of Mount Tsari. Seeking to translate the ethereal into the worldly,
Pietro Francesco Mele (who visited the site with the famed Tibetologist Jigten Gompo ordered the construction of an enormous structure to
Guiseppe Tucci in 1948) and a small group of salvaged fragments support a commemorative stupa at Drigung. The design of the tashi
which have been preserved in private collections and museums. Upon gomang consisted of six stepped tiers, the sides covered in gilt-bronze
visiting the remote and immaculately preserved monastery in 1948, plaques with doors and niches from which emerged freestanding gilt-
Tucci described the tashi gomang stupas as “smothered with a wealth bronze images of various mandala figures. The entire structure was
of carvings and reliefs that knew no limits. The whole Olympus of in essence a series of mandalas contained within the overall mandala
Mahayana seemed to have assembled on those monuments.” of the structure itself. Jigten Gompo had the commemorative stupa
of Dorje Gyalpo removed from its spot at Densatil to surmount the
The site of Densatil was established as a hermitage in the twelfth Drigung tashi gomang, although unsurprising outcry from the monks
century by the esteemed Kagyu master and teacher, Dorje Gyalpo (1110- at Densatil forced him to return it shortly thereafter. The first tashi
1170), a disciple of Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (1070-1153), himself a gomang at Drigung, which was likely to have been the prototype for the
disciple of the famed poet, Milarepa (1040-1123). After the death of his eight tashi gomang at Densatil, was completely destroyed in 1290 when

Footprints of Drigungpa Jikten Sumgon (1143-1217); Tibet, 13th century
24 x 243/8 in. (61 x 61.9 cm.); Rubin Museum of Art, C2003.7.1, HAR65205.