Footnotes

木斯塘寺廟住持羅俄堪千索南倫珠銅像
西藏 十六世紀

Tibetan inscription
༄།། རྗེ་རྪུན་དམ་པ་གསོད་རྣམས་ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་ལ་ན་མོ།། ཕ་མ་རྩོ་བྱས་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་གྱིས་རྡོར་རྗེ་མཛིན་པའི་གོའཕངས་ཐོབ་ཕྱིར་བདུ་དགྱེ་སློང་ཀུན་དགའ་དཔལ་མགོན་གྱིས་བཞེངས་མགྷ་ལཾ་ཀྲཤིས

Transliteration
[1] § | | rje [bts]un dam pa [b]sod [n]ams lhun [grub] la na mo // pha ma[s] [g]tso byas sems can thams cad [k]yis rd[o] [r]je [']dzin pa'i go 'phan[g] thob phyir [d]u d[ge] slong kun dga' dpal mgon gyis bzhengs [/] mangha la(m) [b]kra shis
[ ] emendation
( ) anusvāra nar ro

Translation
Homage to the most Venerable Sonam Lhundrup.¹ The monk Kunga Pelgon commissioned [this image] so that all sentient beings, first and foremost his parents, obtain the state of Vajradhara.² Maṅgalaṃ! May this be auspicious!

¹The great abbot of Mustang (glo bo mkhan chen) and Sakyapa master Sonam Lhundrup Lekpe Jungne Gyeltsen Pel Zangpo (bsod nams lhun grub legs pa'i 'byung gnas rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po).
²The 'state of Vajradhara' (rdo rje 'dzin pa'i go 'phang) is here synonymous with 'enlightenment'.

Himalayan Art Resources item no.16846
treasuryoflives.org biography no.10497
BDRC Resource ID P782

Sonam Lhundrup (c.1456-1532) was the Khenchen ('Great Abbot') of the Kingdom of Lo, situated on the Tibetan border in present-day Mustang, Nepal. He was one of the most inspiring scholars of his time, training many Sakya and Ngor leaders at the threshold of the 16th century, and giving rise to a considerable number of commemorative portraits.

There is a core group of portrait sculptures, to which the present example belongs, that represent Sonam Lhundrup with a common, recognizable likeness and iconography. He has a stout, yet handsome build, rounded features, and a most distinctive tonsure with the silhouette of a pendant bead at the center of his dome, flanked by long sideburns. Being a great scholar, Sonam Lhundrup, is considered an incarnation of the Great Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Manjushri, and is depicted with the bodhisattva's attributes of a wisdom sword and cloth-bound sutra blossoming by each shoulder. He is further attributed a flaming triratna in the palm of his right hand, which is a symbol of three principal objects of Buddhist veneration: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the monastic community (samgha).

A closely related example in terms of likeness, scale, and quality was sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 March 2017, lot 3275. A related masterpiece of Sonam Lhundrup is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2003-6-1).

Provenance
A & J Speelman Oriental Art, London, 2007