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FOUR GESSO AND WOOD GUARDIAN Finely carved with detailed armour and menacing faces,
FIGURES these four Þ gures represent the Four Guardian Kings (Sitian
MING DYNASTY Wang) who are on earth to guard the four cardinal points of
the world and protect the Buddhist Law (dharma), according
each standing with their feet apart, the arms raised in to Buddhist philosophy. The four kings, who are believed to
animated gestures, wearing armour over loose robes, tied at have been present at every critical moment in Buddha’s life,
the waist with an animal mask clasp, with a scarf billowing over including his birth and his attainment of nirvana, were originally
the shoulders, the face with an Þ erce expression below a Þ ve placed on the four sides of stupas to guard the Buddhist
petalled crown relics inside. They include Virudhaka, ‘He who enlarges the
(4) kingdom’, the Guardian of the South; Dhrtarastra, ‘He who
Largest: 111 cm, 43¾ in. maintains the kingdom of the Law’, the Guardian of the East;
Vaishravana, ‘He who is knowing’, the Guardian of the North,
100 SOTHEBY’S
