Footnotes

A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAJRAVARAHI
CENTRAL TIBET, DENSATIL MONASTERY, 15TH CENTURY

藏中 丹薩替 十五世紀 銅鎏金金剛亥母像

Provenance:
With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970s

This gilt copper sculpture of Vajravarahi was once placed on the upper tier of a massive reliquary commemorating an important Buddhist teacher. It closely resembles several other surviving examples of the same genre with some variation in style and period, most dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. The first massive reliquary of this type was created at Drigung monastery in 1208. The founder of Drigung monastery, Jigten Gonpo (1143-1217), sought to suitably house the remains of his recently deceased and beloved teacher, Phagmodrupa (1110-70), inside a magnificent reliquary. He envisioned a monumental stupa in a design generally known as tashi gomang, meaning, "Many Doors of Auspiciousness". The first model he commissioned at Drigung became the foundation for a tradition of creating massive tashi gomang monuments, replete with thousands of images, at Drigung monastery and elsewhere in Tibet (Czaja and Proser (eds.) Golden Visions of Densatil, 2014, pp. 34 & 42).

Eight such monuments were created at Densatil monastery between the late 13th century to the first half of the 15th century. A few photographs of these remarkable structures at Densatil were taken in 1948 by Italian photographer Pietro Francesco Mele, which provides a window into their former glory. These reliquaries were five meters in height, forming a three-dimensional mandala, arranged in recessed tiers with the reliquary containing the deceased's remains on the highest tier. Encrusted with gems, the tashi gomang stupa has been described as "a huge golden mountain" (ibid, p. 54).

This type of reliquary tradition continued at Drigung monastery into the 17th century. A recent study has argued that similar c. 13th century Vajravarahi sculptures were associated with a tashi Gomang stupa at Drigung or elsewhere, and an example in the Rietberg Museum exhibits yet another style variation (see Weldon, 'Defining the Style of A Group of 13th Century Tibetan Gilt Copper Statues', www.asianart.com, 13 September 2018, fig. 6; Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, no. 109, pp. 164-5). The sculptural style of the present Vajravarahi differs from all the others, suggesting that the sculpture was either made for a different reliquary at one of the known sites, or it comes from an unknown site that also must have created tashi gomang reliquaries for their deceased masters. All the Vajravarahi figures discussed range from about 30-40 centimeters in height. Olaf Czaja's study shows that such sculptures were placed on the uppermost tier of the reliquary platform at Densatil (Czaja and Prosner [eds.], 2014, pp. 20-1, 35-6, fig. 15).

In order to identify their location on the massive structure, images were inscribed with Tibetan letters that ensured their proper installation (ibid pp. 48-49; figs. 22-23). Here, the Tibetan letter 'ga' appears twice, behind Vajravarahi's left foot as well as the left hip of the trampled figure below her foot. In the Densatil scheme, this would mean that the present figure originally faced the eastern quadrant. The sculpture was also attached to the reliquary from below, where a circular socket beneath the sculpture enabled a tenon to join it to the stupa. A small patch of metal at the back of the torso indicates consecration materials were inserted prior to its installation at the sanctuary, attesting to the labor intensive creation of these statues and their architectural elements.

Bonhams would like to thank Jane Casey for her assistance in preparing this lot.