Footnotes

銅鎏金直貢梯寺第六任法王妥噶瓦仁欽僧格像
藏中 丹薩替寺 十四世紀

Tibetan inscription
རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐོག་ཁ་བ་

Transliteration
[1] rgyal sras thog kha ba

Translation
The son of the Victorious One¹ Thokawa.<sup>2

1</sup>The expression 'son of the Victorious One' (rgyal sras; jinaputra) refers to a bodhisattva.
²The 6th abbot of Dringung Rinchen Sengge Tokkhawa (rin chen seng get hog kha ba).

Himalayan Art Resources item no.16863
treasuryoflives.org biography no.3903
BDRC Resource ID P2222

The subject of this impressive bronze is identified by inscription as Tokkhawa Rinchen Sengge (1226-1284), the Sixth Abbot of Drigung Monastery. Based in Central Tibet, the Drigung Kagyu Order ascended political power in the 13th century. Dense, heavily gilded, yet finely chased, this powerful portrait would have added to the splendor of the tashi gomang stupas at Densatil Monastery, which neighbored Drigung and is widely considered to have been one of Tibet's greatest artistic monuments.

The skilled craftsman has depicted Tokkhawa Rinchen Sengge with a rounded countenance. Upraised eyebrows add a sense of authority to his contemplative downward gaze. Sengge is seated before a vajra, adopting the Buddha's mudra of calling the Earth to witness his enlightenment (bhumisparsha mudra). Sengge's possessed confidence is matched by his robust build. His broad-shouldered, stocky physique is wrapped in a monastic vest patterned with an overlapping coin design seen across his back. His inner robe produces plush accordion folds over his right pectoral. The inner robe is secured under the elaborate hem of his outer robe, which features lozenges incised with repeated swastikas. The body of the outer robe is sumptuously patterned in the round with mare's tail clouds, dotted mandalas, and lotus flowers depicted in many stages, from leafy sprouts, to buds, to fully-blown.

Sengge was a relative of Jigten Sumgon Rinchen Pel (1143-1217), founder of the Drigung Kagyu Order. His epithet, Tokkhawa ('Man from Tokkha') derives from his seven years in silent retreat in the Tokkha: the upper floor of the Drigung monastery's Golden Temple. After his uncle, the Fifth Abbot of Drigung, passed away, Sengge was called on to succeed him, though he resisted initially, preferring to cultivate his practice in solitary retreats. Nonetheless, in 1278, at the age of 53, he was installed as the Sixth Abbot of Drigung Monastery and held that position for six years until his death in 1284.

Densatil Monastery, where the present bronze would have been installed, was built on the final resting place of the great religious leader Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (1110-70), founder of the Phagdru Kagyu school and the beloved teacher of Jigten Sumgon. It was Jigten Sumgon who conceived of the prototype for the tashi gomang stupas at the beginning of the 13th century, inviting Newari artists from the Kathmandu Valley to his monastery, Drigung, to realize a vision of Chakrasamvara's heavenly realm populated by a retinue of 2,800 deities. Several tashi gomang stupas were erected at the Drigung afterward but were destroyed in 1290 by a Mongol army led by the Sakya general Aklen. Densatil Monastery also adopted the tradition of building tashi gomang stupas from the late 13th century to the 15th century. All of the stupas erected at Drigung and Densatil followed the same basic structure and the iconographic program created by Jigten Sumgon. Built to commemorate several abbots, they stood about 15-feet tall and were arranged into several tiers. Portraits of Indian and Tibetan teachers, such as the present bronze, were placed on the topmost platform, surrounding the central stupa, which enclosed the consecrated remains of the late abbot.

Sculptures made for Densatil's tashi gomang stupas are unique in the sheer density of metal used to cast the figure and its particular dark, blackish color. Coupled with the thick gilding, this speaks to the tremendous wealth of resources available to the early Kagyu orders of Central Tibet. These technical features are seen in the present figure and mirrored by a Densatil gilt bronze Buddha sold at Bonhams, 17 March 2014, lot 16. Also compare the distinctive lotus petals, consisting of two plump layers with frilled tips, to several Densatil mahasiddha figures that would have been placed alongside the present bronze on the topmost platform (see HAR 59829, 22565, and 73868).

Provenance
Sotheby's, New York, 19 September 1996, lot 25