Page 44 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Tantra Buddhost Art

This large and iconic bronze figure depicting Achala, the
wrathful manifestation of Manjushri, communicates a
fearsome sense of monumentality. In the Buddhist pantheon,
the role of fierce dharmapala Achala, the Immovable, is to
eliminate obstacles in the mind of a practitioner and to protect
the mind from negative forces.
In this large rendering, Achala bites his lower lip in a ferocious
grimace, exposing sharp fangs. His bulging, bloodshot eyes
stare in opposite directions, the right eye looking up and the
left eye looking down. In each hand he grasps ritual weapons,
the krodha (sword) and pasha (noose), and his body is
adorned with cobras encircling the head, chest, wrists and
ankles. A small figure of Akshobya adorns the flaming tresses
of Achala, identifying the two deities as members of the same
Buddha family.
A number of early Tibetan images of Achala has been
recorded in Tibetan monastery collections that follow the
iconographic pattern of the current work, see Ulrich von
Schroeder, Buddhist sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001,
vol. II, pp. 1112-1113, cat. nos 291A-E. in particular, compare
the exaggerated features of the current work, including the
large flaming tresses; the disproportionate head almost equal
in size to the torso; and the high, double-petal lotus base to
another thirteen century bronze figure of Achala, see ibid., cat.
no. 291D.
Also compare the pinwheel pattern on the dhoti of Achala with
an identical dhoti pattern on an early thirteenth century kesi
depicting Achala in the Potala Palace, see V. Reynolds, et al.,
On the Path to the Void: Buddhist Art in the Tibetan Realm,
Mumbai, 1996, pp. 252-3, fig. 8. For a full discussion on the
role of Achala in the Buddhist pantheon, see Rob Linrothe,
Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan
Esoteric Buddhist Art, Boston, 1999.

42 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比