Footnotes

• As noted by Mary Slusser, in Patan Museum Highlights, "The Dipankara Buddha is said to predate the historical Buddha in a world cycle long past and to have foretold his coming. He is sometimes equated with Adibuddha, the "original Buddha." Since about the 17th century his cult has been popular with Nepalese Buddhists who consider him a protector of merchants and associate him with alms-giving. One of Dipankara's local names, the "Samyak god", refers to an alms-giving festival where images such as this one are displayed, as well as images with wooden or basketry bodies and metal heads and hands. Basketry images consist of a large, hollow torso covered with clothing and ornaments capable of concealing a man who animates it in procession." (asianart.com)
  
  Compare with a closely related example without the prabhamandala in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and another in the Patan Museum, Kathmandu (see Waldschmidt, Art Treasures from the Himalayas, New York,1970, pl. 40). An example in the Norton Simon Museum of Art also with a wood block base (see Pal, Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, Volume 2: Art From the Himalayas and China, Pasadena, 2003, no. 68, p. 105).
  
  Provenance:
  Christie's, New York, March 25, 2004, lot 110.
  
  Published:
  Nancy Tingley, Buddhas, Petaluma, 2009, no. 31, p. 101.
  
  Exhibited:
  Buddhas, Crocker Museum of Art, Jan 30- April 17, 2009, no. 31.

---

Category: Asian Art / Southeast Asian, Indian and Himalayan Art

---

Auction terms and conditions