Page 269 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Tantra Buddhost Art

fig. 1
Thangka depicting Smashana Adipati, Lords of
the Charnel Ground, Tibet, 15th century, pigments
on cloth
Gift of Shelly & Donald Rubin Foundation,
F1996.16.5 (HAR 462)
© Rubin Museum of Art, New York

Highly unusual in its powerful scale, electrifying in its energy The skeletal torso reveals the bony rib cage at the front,
and movement, this large and lithe bronze figure depicts a and the ribs with protruding spinal column at the back. The
dancing Chitipati or kinkara. Charnal ground figures including iconography of the Chitipati is almost identical, however, the
kinkara (skeleton) and Chitipati (Lord of the Funeral Pyre), are kinkara has two eye sockets and a human-like body, with
commonly depicted in Vajrayana Buddhist imagery and ritual flesh-covered hands and feet and delicately articulated nails.
as the fierce protectors of tantric practitioners, especially
in thangkas. However, this is the only large freestanding Chitipati are associated with the eight great charnel grounds
sculpture of this form recorded in any private or museum (astamahasmashana) of the Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini
collection. mandalas, and invoked as the skeletal protectors of Tantric
practitioners. Chitipati are typically depicted completely
For a representation of the Chitipati, see a 15th century denuded of flesh, with a third eye, wearing a five-leaf or five-
thangka in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, illustrated skull crown, holding kinkara-danda (skeleton clubs) or other
in Rob Linrothe and Jeff Watt, loc.cit., pp. 126-127, cat. no. ritual implements aloft, and with knees intertwined. The
10 (fig. 1). See also a detail on an 18th century thangka of ghouls and spirits of the charnal ground, including the kinkara,
Vajrayogini, sold in our Paris rooms, 10th June 2014, lot are governed by the Chitipati.
69. These images demonstrate how the current figure may
originally have appeared as a pair, depicted dancing alongside It has been speculated in the past that this sculpture may have
each other in a temple or other ritual setting. been used to support the oversized Tibetan ritual long horn
known as dungchen. Found throughout the greater Tibetan
In the Tantric context, the charnal ground is both a literal and Buddhist cultural region, dungchen are long, telescoping
metaphorical arena for Buddhist practice—a potent reminder bronze or mixed metal trumpets often more than three meters
of the impermanence of life; the mental constructs of aversion in length, used in a ritual context and always played in pairs.
and impurity; and the craving for a human body and future The wide ends of the dungchen typically rest on mounted
rebirths. There are subtle iconographical differences between stands, and are held aloft by a handheld mount, or rested on
the kinkara and Chitipati. The kinkara is depicted in a dancing the ground. In the current example, it is possible that a curved
posture, with a prominent and pointed skull with curvilinear mount for the wide end of a dungchen would have fit into the
bone fissures; hollow eye sockets; the gaping mouth with figure’s raised proper right palm, as it also would in that of its
teeth bared and vicious fangs. A decorative necklace and pair. For further discussion, see Linrothe and Watt, Demonic
breastplate or textile adorns the upper body, and a short dhoti Divine: Himalayan Art and Beyond, New York, 2004, p. 134,
adorns the lower body. Further decorative bone fissures are cat. no. 14.
visible at the back of the skull, the wrist, knees and ankles.

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