Footnotes

A SKULL AND COPPER ALLOY INNER OFFERING KAPALA MANDALA
TIBET, CIRCA 18TH CENTURY

西藏 約十八世紀 銅質蓋座嘎巴拉碗

The practice associated with the inner offering mandala is a powerful tantric meditation involving purifying one's own defilements through the image of cutting off one's own head, making a bowl from the skull, and then drinking one's own blood and flesh. Related to the deities Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi, purifying rituals are meant to prepare the practitioner for the transformative meditations of the completion stage of this tantric practice.

The kapala which sits above a triangular base represents the skull-cup and the inner mandala within. The flat lid on top outlines the framework of the ninefold mandala format, articulated with the seed syllables written in both Tibetan and Chinese and of which are related to Vajravarahi and Chakrasamvara. The base here is covered in a turbulent arrangement of mountainlike crags and wavelike forms with two hanging banners on either side inscribed with mantras. The triangular base holding the skull-cup depicts flames emerging in concentric rays with outward facing heads at each of the three points. Compare to another kapala in the Essen collection which shows banners and a triangular base with three severed heads (Essen, Die Gotter de Himalaya, 1989, p. 271, no. 172) and another in the Ethnographic Museum, Zurich, (Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet, Stuttgart, 2020, p.253, no. 317).

Published:
Ramon Prats, et.al., Monasterios y lamas del Tibet, Madrid, Fundación "La Caixa", 2000, p.114, no.47.
John Huntington, et. al., The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Los Angeles, 2003, pp.358-359, no.104.

Exhibited:
Monasterios y lamas del Tibet, Fundación "La Caixa", Madrid, November 2000-January 2001.
The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art Los Angeles County Museum October 05, 2003–January 04, 2004 and The Columbus Museum of Art,
February 06–May 09, 2004.

Provenance:
Acquired in Geneva in 1980s