Page 250 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art April 3 2018

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A ‘THOUSAND BUDDHA’ KASHAYA 清十八世紀 緙絲納補百佛袈裟
KESI ROBE
來源：
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY
Gordon Getty 收藏，美國
the cut-silk kesi garment decorated with 118 Buddhas allocated 紐約蘇富比2007年9月21日，編號64
over twenty-five columns, all seated in dhyanasana, the four
corners with the Heavenly Guardians, with another guardian
in the central column, flanked by auspicious sun and moon
emblems represented respectively by a cock and a hare, the
faces and clothing delicately painted, with a blue scrolling lotus
border, all reserved against a red ground
125.2 by 255 cm, 49¼ by 100⅜ in.

PROVENANCE
Collection of Gordon Getty, U.S.A.
Sotheby’s New York, 21st September 2007, lot 64.
HK$ 500,000-700,000
US$ 64,000-90,000
This rare textile, with the finely rendered expressions and
refined kesi, indicate that it was created in an imperial
workshop. Such robes were reserved for the highest officials of
a monastery, but were rarely worn in Tibetan or Central Asian
Buddhist traditions, as it was considered an act of sacrilege
for any human to adorn oneself with Buddhas. Thus, they were
often displayed as sacred objects in Tibetan monasteries. Also
known as kashaya, they are always of rectangular shape and
assembled with multiple ‘patches’ so as to symbolise the vow
of poverty taken by Buddhist monks.
The ‘thousand Buddhas’ is based on the Mahayana Buddhist
belief that the cosmic consciousness of the Buddha is
accessible to all. The actual number of represented Buddhas
is insignificant. Rather, it is the concept of the deity’s infinite
availability that is of critical importance.
This theme as presented on a garment first occurred in
the fifth century in a carving of Vairochana, one of the Five
Transcendant Buddhas, at Yungang in northern Shanxi
province. A Ming period example of a large and seated bronze
Buddha wearing the robe was sold in our New York rooms,
22nd March 1995, lot 150.
Compare another kesi Buddhist priest’s robe, illustrated in
Heaven’s Embroidered Cloths: One Thousand Years of Chinese
Textiles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1995, Hong Kong, pl. 45;
as well as two embroidered examples, ibid., pls 43-44. Another
twenty-five column piece, in The Cleveland Museum of Art,
is illustrated in James C.Y. Watt and Anne E. Wardell, When
Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, New York,
1997, pl. 64. Also see the essay by Valrae Reynolds, ‘Thousand
Buddhas Capes and Their Mysterious Role in Sino-Tibetan
Trade and Liturgy,’ ibid., pp. 32-37.

248 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比