Footnotes

A SILVER DAMASCENED IRON RITUAL STAFF (KHATVANGA)
EASTERN TIBET, DERGE, 15TH CENTURY 

藏東 更慶鎮 十五世紀 鐵鋄銀喀章嘎天杖 

This ancient ritual staff, known as a khatvanga, appeared in Hindu practices as early as the Gupta period (4th–6th century), and was incorporated into Vajrayana Buddhism no later than the 8th century. In Tantric Buddhism, the khatvangais considered the essence of Chakrasamvara, while also being associated with other Buddhist masters and protectors, including Padmasambhava, Mahakala, Hayagriva, and the dakini. It often serves in iconography to represent the opposite-gendered counterpart of a transformational deity (yidam) holding it. For example, as the principal attribute of Vajravarahi, the khatvangais always cast in the crook of her left arm, signifying her male counterpart Samvara (see a Pala period brass figure of Vajravarahi sold at Bonhams, New York, 16 March 2021, lot 305). Standalone khatvangas, such as the present lot, are typically used in empowerment rituals. Larger ones could also be placed on an altar and worshipped as sacred images (Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet, 2020, p. 182).

The present khatvanga is at once a remarkable piece of art and a ceremonial object of symbolic significance. Covered with brilliantly damascened silver spirals, its long octagonal shaft symbolizes the Eight-Fold Path to enlightenment. The shaft is surmounted by an exquisite "thousand-petaled" lotus, below a finely modeled double-vajra (visvavajra). Above them, a long-life vase supports three stacked heads – the first freshly severed, the second decaying, and the third a skull. Each of the three finely detailed heads allude to the khatvanga'spower to destroy the Three Poisons: desire, aversion, and ignorance. The staff is finished with a five-pronged half-vajra on each of the two ends, symbolizing the Five Wisdoms.

Compare to a closely related 15th-century khatvanga of identical size, published in Huntington et. al., The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, 2003, pp.358-59, no.104 and another in the British Museum (Ramos Tantra, 2020, p. 132, fig. 93). The overall design and workmanship are also consistent with imperial ritual staffs from the Yongle period (1402-24); see a Yongle-marked khatvanga, damascened with both gold and silver, preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig. 2; 2015.500.6.28), and another silver-inlaid Yongle example at the Bodhimanda Foundation, Netherlands (V-232). Also see Christie's, New York, 21 March 2000, lot 106, and 22 March 1999, lot 108.

Provenance:
Suzi Lebasi, Tasmania, 2000s