Footnotes

Published:
Michael Henss, "A Rare Image of the 28th Sakya Throne Holder Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk (1638-1685)", in Caumanns, Heimbel, Kano, and Schiller (eds.), Gateways to Tibetan Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honour of David P. Jackson on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, Vol. 1, Universität Hamburg, 2021, pp. 399-414.

Provenance:
Michael Henss Collection, Zurich, acquired in the late 1990s.

西藏 十七世紀晚期 彩繪泥塑二十八世薩迦法王阿旺索南旺楚像

著錄
Michael Henss，「A Rare Image of the 28th Sakya Throne Holder Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk (1638-1685)」，Caumanns、Heimbel、Kano 及 Schiller 編，《Gateways to Tibetan Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honour of David P. Jackson on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday》，卷1，漢堡大學，2001年，頁399-414

來源
Michael Henss 珍藏，蘇黎世，二十世紀八十年代晚期入藏

Translation Front Inscription
Om svasti! I bow to the feet of the sublime [or: late?] root guru, whose kindness is incomparable, the great and glorious Sakyapa, the mantra-holding master, the omniscient Ngag dbang bsod nams dbang phyug bkra shis grags pa rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po. Mangalam!

Translation Back Inscription, Upper Plate (lines 1–4)
Om svasti! This is the renowned Venerable Dharma Lord [Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk], the protector of all, the glorious master, who extends his loving kindness to all beings like a mother cares for her only child, who rejoices in them, who leads them in the three realms, and who is the incomparable crown jewel among those who wear the saffron robes. As his inner reliquary and as a means to fulfil his wishes, we, headed by Depön Tenpa Dargye, have faithfully erected this most excellent statue of the supreme one bearing the name Sonam. May through this [act of erecting this statue] our impurities and mistakes that we have repeatedly accumulated all be completely purified. May through this [virtuous] power the happiness and wellbeing of all mother-like sentient beings be all-pervasive, just like the supreme taste of sweet honey, and may it serve as the cause so that all their wishes are effortlessly accomplished in accordance with the Dharma. Mangalam.

Translation Back Inscription, Upper Plate (lines 4–5)
A multiplying bone relic of the tathagata; a Khecari pill [blessed by] the Mantra Holder [i.e., Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk?]; a consecrated substance of Sonam Wangchuk, a gyado; a consecrated substance of a seven birthed [Brahmin] that produces many relics. As for the manner in which the fillings of the bone relics of Sonam Wangchuk abide [in this statue]: they are kept in its upper, lower, and middle parts.

Translation Back Inscription, Lower Plate (lines 1–3)
[In this sculpture] are present an image of Vajrabhairava; various blessing bestowing objects of the previous lords [of Sakya] together with [pieces of their] garments; in particular, a large [piece of] garment of Sakya Pandita; the relic body salt of the Venerable Lord Kunga Drakpa [i.e., Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk?]; one hundred and thirty-one [small] images [i.e., tsha tshas?] of Amitayus; a large amount of [Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk's] dunglok, garment, and piece of tooth. Furthermore, necessary things like medicinal substances, grains, and brocade. May it thus become a cause for the welfare of the doctrine and sentient beings.


Bonhams would like to thank Andreas Kretschmar for the above translation of the inscriptions.

Please see the lot's referenced publication, or refer to the department, for a transcription and transliteration of this sculpture's Tibetan inscriptions and footnotes explaining its translation.

This sculpture's detailed inscription records that, sealed within it, lie relics of the master it commemorates, along with those of other Sakya leaders, including one of the most revered masters of Tibetan Buddhism, Sakya Pandita (1182-1251). The bottom is sealed with a painted double vajra on an outer canvas. Portable statues containing documented relics of comparable origin are extremely rare. Thus, the inscription and the consecrations make the sculpture an outstanding treasure of Tibetan art and cultural history.

Considered the Third Coming of Buddha in Tibet, Sakya Pandita's (1182-1251) legacy as a scholar and religious leader remains among the greatest of all time. Studying Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophy, tantra, logic, Sanskrit, poetry, astrology, and art with countless Indian, Nepalese, Kashmiri, and Tibetan masters, he achieved mastery over all these subjects. His writings are among the most widely influential in Tibetan literature and prompted commentaries by many subsequent authors.  Among his 114 authored works is the only text of Tibetan origin ever to have been translated into the Sanskrit language (The Treasury of Logic on Valid Cognition). His Indian students at Nalanda University in Magadha translated the work, which was received with much acclaim (Watt, "An Overview of the Sakya Tradition", HAR set no. 5915). Sakya Pandita is also credited with the conversion of the Mongols to Buddhism. His reputation as the wisest Buddhist master of his time prompted the Mongol prince Khoden Khan to summon him to present-day Inner Mongolia in 1244. Sakya Pandita's unmatched sagacity among the Mongol rulers initiated the conditions for a political alliance established with his nephew, Chogyal Pagpa (1235-80), between the Sakya and the Yuan dynasty, that transformed Tibet's economic and political fortunes.

Consecrated with a "large piece of garment" belonging to Sakya Pandita, this polychromed clay portrait memorializes Ngwang Sonam Wangchuk (1638-85), the 28th Sakya Tridzin ("throne holder"), who presided over Sakya monastery, the headquarters of the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism. Ngwang Sonam Wangchuk was the precocious son of a great Sakya scholar, the 27th Sakya Tridzin, Jamgon Amnye Zhab (1597-1659). He received empowerments, teachings, and ritual instructions from his father at an early age, including the Sakya's core Lamdre teachings when he was thirteen. Ngwang Sonam Wangchuk ascended the Sakya throne following his father's death in 1659 and held the office for twenty-six years until his death in 1685. This sculpture was likely created within two years of Ngwang Sonam Wangchuk's passing, between 1685-7 (Henss, 2021, p. 401).

Six years into his office, Ngwang Sonam Wangchuk traveled to Lhasa for an audience with the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (1617-82), and the two developed a friendship (see www.treasuryoflives.org profile no. 10633). A distinctive feature of this portrait is the phurbha, a ritual dagger, tucked into the belt of Ngwang Sonam Wangchuk's inner garment. The top part, shaped like a human head, can be seen before his chest. This rare motif indicates that he was a practitioner of Vajrakila Tantra and nods to the early influence of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism on the Khon family, from which the hereditary Sakya Tridzin lineage derives. Such a phurbha also characterizes several statues portraying the Fifth Dalai Lama, who shared a personal interest in Nyingma teachings (see HAR 12582, 58312, 75063 & 98237).

Ngwang Sonam Wangchuk's full head of slicked-back hair and recognizable countenance are similarly represented in an inscribed gilt-bronze portrait held by the Musée Guimet, Paris (fig. 1; HAR 85918; Beguin, Tibet, Art et meditation: Ascètes et mystiques au Musée Guimet, 1991, no. 43). It also displays the Nyingma phurbha tucked into his robes. A second inscribed gilt-bronze portrait in a private collection is published in Kreijger, Godenbeet uit Tibet: Lamaïstische kunst uit Nederlands particulier besit, 1989, p. 116.