Page 213 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

955
A SILVER INLAID BRASS AND IRON BON PURBHA
TIBET, CIRCA 12TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61956
11 1/4 in. (28.5 cm) long
$15,000 - 20,000
西藏 約十二世紀 銅錯銀鐵尖苯教普巴杵

The purbha’s surface has been worn smooth and outlines softened,
from centuries of ritual handling. The Bon deity Purbha Drugse
Chempa is depicted at the center, surmounted by a mythical bird and
another three-faced godhead at the apex. Different from Buddhist
examples where a vajra-grip is often inserted between the deity and
the tripartite blade, here Purbha Drugse Chempa directly connects
with the blade through a knot of immutability. Compare a closely
related Bon purbha sold at Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2018, lot
3005.

Provenance
Private European Collection, acquired in the 1970s/80s
Sotheby’s, New York, 20 March 2013, lot 222

956
A BRASS BON PURBHA
TIBET, 12TH/13TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61958
19 in. (48.2 cm) long

$30,000 - 50,000
西藏 十二/十三世紀 銅質苯教普巴杵

Belonging to Tibet’s indigenous Bon religion, this striking, heavily
cast purbha is wrought unaffectedly with a sense of intense, bound
activity. The purbha harnesses the three-sided deity Purbha Drugse
Chempa with stacks of wrathful heads above an openwork endless
knot grip and a tripartite blade. The whole is bound in red strings with
suspended copper skulls talismans. Buddhist versions of the same
period – such as one sold at Bonhams, New York, 18 September
2013, lot 3 – would have a vajra in the grip. Compare two other Bon
purbhas with the alternative endless knot grip (HAR 10131 & 57062),
and a third sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2016, lot 5.

Provenance
Private Collection, Sydney, acquired in Bhutan, 1960s

956

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