Page 30 - Indian and Himalayan Art Mar 21, 2018 NYC

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN COLLECTION

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A DENSATIL GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF DORJE RABTENMA
TIBET, DENSATIL MONASTERY, 15TH CENTURY
15√ in. (40.5 cm.) high
$200,000-300,000
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Italy, circa 1991.
Christie’s New York, 21 September 2007, lot 125.
LITERATURE
Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no. 22150

The eight tashi gomang stupas of Densatil, a Kagyu monastery located six tiers, among the host of other guardian deities. A fxture on the verso
southeast of Lhasa, were by all accounts the most astounding in all of Tibet. reveals how it would have been attached to the base of the structure. Dorje
Densatil was founded in 1158 by Phakmodrupa Dorje Gyelpo (an esteemed Rabtenma, an emanation of the protectress of Tibet, Palden Lhamo (or
lama closely connected to the Tibetan saint Milarepa through his Guru “Glorious Goddess”), repels the uninitiated with her ferce countenance, her
Gampopa) who established the monastery upon the site of his humble garland of severed heads, and the fayed human skin that sits upon the mule
meditation hut. The main building’s tashi gomang chorten (or “stupa of she rides. She cuts through ignorance with her faming sword. A snow lion’s
many auspicious doors”) was an enormous display of the whole pantheon of head emerges out of her gold earring, just below, and a naga from her other
Tibetan Buddhist deities, expertly crafted by the fnest Newar artists and local earring. Her jewel-spitting mongoose symbolizes the good fortune she can
craftsmen. Tibetan textual sources tell us that these lavishly decorated stupas bring to those who supplicate her.
were erected during a period of expansion from the late fourteenth to early
sixteenth centuries. Tragically destroyed in the second half of the twentieth Additional examples of Densatil bronzes can be found in Olaf Czaja’s Golden
century, all that remains now are the few photographs taken by Francesco P. Visions of Densatil, published to accompany the Asia Society exhibition of
Mele (who visited the site with the famed Tibetologist Guiseppe Tucci in 1948) the same name. For further comparison see a Densatil gilt-bronze frieze with
and a small group of salvaged fragments which have been preserved in private goddesses sold at Christie’s New York, 13 September 2017, lot 626, as well as
collections and museums. a Densatil gilt-bronze fgure of Nagaraja also sold at Christie’s New York on 19
March 2014, lot 1016.
The present example is a fnely cast and superbly decorated fgure of the 西藏 丹薩替寺 十五世紀 鎏金銅多傑拉佈珍馬像
protectress, Dorje Rabtenma, which once sat on the lowest of the stupa’s

A gilt bronze fgure of a Nagaraja, Tibet, A Densatil gilt bronze frieze with ofering goddesses, Illustration created by Olaf Czaja and modifed by Asia
Densatil style, 15th century, sold at Christie’s Tibet, 14th/15th century, sold at Christie’s New York, Society. Reprinted with permission of Olaf Czaja.
New York, 19 March 2014, lot 1016, for $617,000. 13 September 2017, lot 626, for $396,500.
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