Footnotes

錯銀錯紅銅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
༄། སྭ་སྟི། བསོད་ནམས་མཆོག་གིས་རྒྱལ་བའི་དགོངས་དོན་རིག། རྟག་པར་ཐེག་ཆེན་དོན་ལ་བརྩོན་པར་སྤྱོད། ལེགས་པའི་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། རྟག་ཏུ་བདག་ལ་བྱིན་གྱིས་རླབ་ཏུ་གསོལ།།

Transliteration
[1] § swa sti / bsod nams mchog gis rgyal ba'i dgongs don rig / rtag par theg chen don la brtson par spyod / legs pa'i 'byung gnas zhabs la gsol ba 'debs / rtag tu bdag la byin gyis rlab[s] tu gsol //

Translation
[Om] svasti.
I pray at the feet of Lekpe Jungne.¹
[He who] comprehends the Conqueror's ultimate instructions by means of [his] excellent moral virtue,
[and who] strives continually to practice the meaning of Mahāyāna,
May [he] always bestow [his] blessings upon me.

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).

Himalayan Art Resources item no.66788
treasuryoflives.org biography no.10497
BDRC Resource ID P782

An accomplished artist has depicted Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundrup (1456-1532) with his signature short crop of hair with a central tongue receding from his dome and transitioning into fetching sideburns extending all the way to his squarish jawline. The artist has clad the abbot in a warm set of patchwork robes that have patterned hems of clouds and lotus sprays. He also wraps a meditation cloak around his shoulders, featuring a prominent double collar bearing a half-vajra between the shoulder blades and a rice grain pattern along the bottom hems that terminate around the rim of the base in a rather satisfying fashion.

Unlike most of Sonam Lhundrup's more senior portraits, here he is depicted as a young teacher of scripture, raising his right hand in the gesture of explication while holding a Buddhist sutra in his left. His eyes are alert with crisp silver-inlaid pupils of a piercing, enlightened gaze. Mustang's celebrated Khencen ('Great Abbot'), Sonam Lhundrup was fully ordained within the Sakya order at the precocious age of 22 and appointed the abbot of the royal monastery of the Kingdom of Lo shortly after. The kingdom of Lo prospered from the salt trade during Sonam Lhundrup's lifetime, giving rise to fine portraits of the celebrated teacher in this brassy, ungilded style favored throughout Mustang, Tsang, and Western Tibet. The sculpture's slender lotus petals take inspiration from the imperial style of the early Ming court which dispatched Buddhist bronzes as diplomatic gifts to powerful Sakya enclaves.

Published
Helmut Uhlig and Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhistische Kunst aus dem Himalaya: Kaschmir, Ladakh, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Berlin, 1976, p.55
Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p.481, no.134F

Provenance
Koller Auktionen, Zurich, 1999
Onno Janssens Collection, Netherlands
Christie's, New York, 22 March 2011, lot 339