Page 190 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

943
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAHACHAKRA VAJRAPANI
TIBET, CIRCA 12TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.68311
4 1/4 in. (10.7 cm) high
$40,000 - 60,000
西藏 約十二世紀 銅鎏金大輪金剛手像

This rare and unusual early Tibetan bronze depicts Mahachakra Vajrapani. The practice of
Mahachakra Vajrapani was popularized by the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, and later
by the Gelug. Mahachakra Vajrapani is a yidam (meditational deity), an enlightened being
who can be the focus of one’s tantric practice, bestowing powers and spiritual attainments.

The yidam strikes a dynamic pose, astride a makara and turtle, biting through the middle of
a snake, and surmounted by an eagle (kyung). Mahachakra Vajrapani digesting a snake’s
venom is one of the most striking examples of tantric imagery in Tibetan Buddhism. Snakes
are key to his wrathful symbolism, conveying his role of subduing harmful forces and
converting ‘poisonous’ emotions into virtue (cf. van Alphen, in Bonhams, Hong Kong, 29
November 2016, lot 108).

The denseness of the gilded figure’s casting is representative of the power and vigor of early
Tibetan bronzes. When compared to a later bronze in the Potala Palace, the Sakya may
have codified Mahachakra Vajrapani’s iconography as standing on human figures by the
13th-century (von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculpture in Tibet, Vol.II, Hong Kong, 2001, p.1115,
no.292D). By contrast, earlier examples show great eccentricity, such as the present
example’s makara and kyung. A c.11th-century sculpture sold at Bonhams, New York, 13
March 2017, lot 3064, and a bronze published in Himalayan Art Resources (HAR 20349),
show two other instances of eccentric early sculptures of Vajrapani.

Exhibited
Casting the Divine: Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New
York, 2012-13.

Provenance
The Nyingjei Lam Collection
On loan to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005-2019

188 | BONHAMS