Mark Rasmussen
International Director
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 20
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF
THE FOURTH SAKYA TRIZDEN, SONAM TSEMO TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY
THE FOURTH SAKYA TRIZDEN, SONAM TSEMO
5 October 2020, 17:00 HKT
Hong Kong, Six Pacific PlaceHK$240,000 - HK$400,000
Looking for a similar item?
Our Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF
THE FOURTH SAKYA TRIZDEN, SONAM TSEMO
THE FOURTH SAKYA TRIZDEN, SONAM TSEMO
TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY
The back of the base with a Tibetan inscription.
12 cm (4 3/4 in.) high
The back of the base with a Tibetan inscription.
12 cm (4 3/4 in.) high
Footnotes
銅鎏金四世薩迦法王索南孜摩像
西藏 十五/十六世紀
Tibetan inscription
༄༅།། བསོད་ནམས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་གཉིས་ལས།། མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀུན་གྱི་རྩེ་མོར་
འཛེགས།། ཇི་ལྟ་ཇི་སྙེད་ཆོས་ཀུན་མཁྱེན།། བསོད་ནཾས་རྩེ་མོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ།།
Transliteration
[1] § | | bsod nams ye shes tshogs gnyis las | | mkhas grub kun gyi rtse mor [2] 'dzegs | | ji lta ji snyed chos kun mkhyen | | bsod na(m)s rtse mo la phyag 'tshal | |
() anusvāra na ro
Translation
Through the double accumulation of merit and wisdom,
He reached the apex of all scholars and practitioners,
Seeing the nature and extent of all phenomena.
I pay homage to Sonam Tsemo.1
1The lay Sakyapa scholar, and Sachen Kunga Nyingpo's son, Sonam Tsemo (bsod nams rtse mo).
Himalayan Art Resources item no.7835
treasuryoflives.org biography no.2919
BDRC Resource ID P1618
Sonam Tsemo (1142-82) was the second of 'the five founding fathers' of the Sakya Order. He was renowned for his intellect and numerous textual commentaries. He held the position of Sakya Trizden ('Sakya Throne-Holder') for only three years, after which he abdicated to his younger brother, Drakpa Gyeltsen (1147-1216), to devote the rest of his life to study and prayer. He passed away at the age of forty, and according to his hagiography he left behind nothing but his robe and a footprint, with no trace of his physical body.
In this delicately chased gilt bronze, Sonam Tsemo is a young man with unruly curls and a gentle, meditative gaze. He wears a long-sleeved layman's garment decorated with auspicious floral motifs. Draped over his left shoulder is a meditation cloak with small scattered flowers and a floral hem. The cloak's bunching folds across his back add a sense of movement to the sculpture and enhance the bronze's haptics. Tsemo raises his right hand in a gesture that offers reassurance to his followers (abhaya mudra), while his left hand holds the hem of his robe. This combination of gestures draws a likeness with early bronze sculptures of the Buddha. See bronzes of the same style and period depicting Sonam Tsemo's brother, Drakpa Gyeltsen, and his nephew, Sakya Paṇḍita (HAR 3196 & 8316, respectively).
Provenance
Gennady Leonov, London, 2008