Footnotes

錯銀錯紅銅七世薩迦法王八思巴羅卓堅贊銅像
西藏 十六世紀

Tibetan inscription
༄།། འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན་པོ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པའི་ཞབས་ཀྱི་པདྨོ་ལ། བདག་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཚ་དབང་འཁོར་བཅས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིའོ། །དགེ་བ་འདི་ཡིས་ཕ་མས་གཙོ་བྱས་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་མྱུར་ཏུ་སངྶ་རྒྱས་ཐོབ་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་དུ་གསོལ།། མ་ངྒ་ལཾ།།

Transliteration
[1] § | 'gro ba'i mgon po chos rgyal 'phags pa'i zhabs kyi padmo la | bdag rdo rje [tshe] dbang 'khor bcas phyag 'tshal zhing skyabs su mchi'o | |dge ba 'di yis pha mas gtso byas sems can thams cad myur tu sangs rgyas thob par byin gyis brlab du gsol | | ma[ng] ga l(am) | |
[ ] emendation
( ) anusvāra na ro

Translation
I, Dorje Tsewang, together with [my] followers prostrate to and take refuge at the lotus feet of Phakpa¹, the protector of migratory beings [and] Dharma King. Through this virtuous deed, may you grant blessings so that all sentient beings, starting with [my] parents, quickly obtain Buddhahood. Maṅgalaṃ.

¹The illustrious member of the Khon family and Sakyapa master Phakpa Lodroe Gyeltsen ('phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan).

Himalayan Art Resources item no.8315
treasuryoflives.org biography no.2051
BDRC Resource ID P1048

Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen (1235-80), the last of 'the five founding fathers' of the Sakya order, is one of the most influential figures in Tibetan history. He was anointed the first Imperial Preceptor of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan (1260-94). The Khan offered him the opportunity to establish the Sakya order as the sole arbiter of Buddhism in Tibet, yet Gyeltsen turned him down, deciding instead to maintain the coexistence of other schools for the common good of propagating the Dharma. It is all the more extraordinary that Gyeltsen took such a diplomatic and undogmatic position considering the century of power struggles that had endured between the Sakya and Kagyu orders at the time. It can be said of few men or women throughout the history of civilization that when presented with the opportunity they resisted the temptation of absolute power. Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen's wisdom and compassion would forever alter the course of Tibetan culture and history.

Seated in an upright position and wearing the robes of a monk, Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen holds his hands before him in the gesture of 'forwarding the Dharma' (dharmacakrapavartina mudra). From this activity bloom two lotuses rising to his shoulders, one presenting a ghanta and the other a vajra—ubiquitous Tibetan Buddhist symbols for wisdom and compassion, respectively. Gyeltsen's facial features are refined and well-composed, with elongated half-closed eyes highlighted with copper and silver inlay. His upturned, pursed lips are enhanced with copper. The hem of his robes displays fine swirling motifs of clouds and scrolls. The style of lotus base, with tightly packed lotus petals with bead-like tips, and the choice of a non-gilded, brassy metallic composition inlaid with precious metals are common elements of a sculptural tradition associated with monasteries in Tsang province of south-central Tibet that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries. Compare a closely related figure of Sonam Lhundrup (HAR 24162) and a figure of Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (HAR 2714).

Exhibited
Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 1 February – 15 July 2019.

Published
Karl Debreczeny (ed.), Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, New York, 2019, p.110, fig.5.3.

Provenance
London Art Market, 2007