Footnotes

Blending elegance and power, the robust goddess centers her weight effortlessly on flexed toes, achieving an accomplished dancer's pose. The sow's head that identifies her as the consort of the great transformative deity Samvara projects boldly to the right. She dons a garland of rotund dried skulls – a rare iconographic feature for her solo dancing form, which typically has a string of freshly severed heads instead. Dried skulls are more common when she is depicted in yabyum with Chakrasamvara. But Vajravarahi is also worshiped in her own right as a protector of esoteric practices. She is also the only goddess in Tibet to reincarnate on earth, serving as the abbot of Samding monastery, near Lhasa.

Two other examples depicting this rarer garland of skulls draped gracefully across her lithe and supple stance comprise a c.13th-century Nepalese figure in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 2001, p.529, no.173D, and a Densatil-style sculpture sold at Sotheby's, New York, 24 March 2004, lot 78. Her tiara of dried skulls, both splendid and terrific, is surmounted with finely modeled gem-set foliate leaves similar to that of another example held in the Potala Palace, published in von Schroeder, op. cit., vol. 2, p.1053, no.266D. These two sculptures also share similar treatments of the hairline, earrings, and her pleasing, rounded face.

Provenance
Private Collection, Hong Kong, since 2000


銅鎏金金剛亥母像
西藏中部，約十四世紀
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網2441號
高38.5釐米（15 1/8英吋）

4,500,000-5,000,000港元

佛母翩翩起舞，優雅而有力，她右腿彎曲，僅以左腳尖點地保持平衡。右耳後突出的豬首為辨認金剛亥母的明顯標誌，她亦是密宗本尊勝樂金剛的明妃。身掛乾骷髏蔓的特徵在金剛亥母舞姿單身像中極為少見，較為多見的是佩戴人頭鏈的形象。而此類骷髏蔓主要出現於佛母與勝樂金剛結合的雙身像上。除了其明妃的身份以外，金剛亥母自身也是密宗重要的護法神，受到信徒崇拜。她也是西藏唯一一位在世上轉世的佛母，化身為拉薩附近的桑丁寺的主持。

另有兩尊金剛亥母像也配戴類似的骷髏蔓，一尊來自十三世紀的尼泊爾，參見von Schroeder， 西藏佛教造像，卷一，2001年，頁 529，173D號；另一尊為2004年3月24日於紐約蘇富比售出的丹薩替寺風格造像（拍品78號）。此處金剛亥母頭戴五骷髏冠，骷髏之上又以鑲嵌珠寶的冠葉裝飾，與藏於布達拉宮的另一作品相像，參見von Schroeder， 同上，卷二，頁1053，266D號。這兩尊造像在對髮際、耳環、以及圓鼓臉龐的處理上也極為相似。

來源
香港私人收藏，自2000年