Mouseover Zoom loading...
Lot 63
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VAJRAPANI
Estimated Value:
3.000 € - 5.000 €
Schätzpreis:
11.000 €
Description:
China, inner Mongolia, ca. 19th c.H. 25,5 cm
Vajrapani is the "bearer of the vajra" - the diamond sceptre.Our mind, our awareness, is compared to the vajra because this awareness can sever, split, dissolve all illusion, all delusion.Vajrapani embodies the immeasurable power of all Buddhas. His highly wrathful appearance, wielding the five-rayed diamond sceptre in his right hand, symbolises the power of complete spiritual awakening. The left hand shows the threatening gesture with the index finger and the little finger to banish demons that cause obstacles. His body is stout and powerful. He has a face with a wrathfully excited expression, four fangs bared, and his tongue curled back. Between his two natural eyes, and his brows, he has the Third Eye - the Eye of Wisdom. All three eyes are wide open, and reddened with anger. A fivefold golden tiara symbolises that he has the wisdom of the Five Tathagatas. On the leaves of his tiara are dried human skulls - symbols of transience. Whirled-up strands of hair pile up above his head. His facial hair is depicted like flames. A snake - symbol of the anger he has overcome through the power of his great compassion - hangs down from his neck. A long chain with fifty severed human heads, strung on human entrails, also hang from his shoulders. The - iconographically - fifty heads of the garland correspond to the paths that mindfulness, the original mind, encounters in relation to the phenomena it perceives. Splendid, sixfold jewellery adorns his body and limbs. Spread over his back, Vajrapani wears the skin of a lion, demonstrating his power and strength, and wrapped around his hips, as a sign of his fearlessness, is the skin of a tiger, whose head covers the Bodhisattva's right knee. With his two powerful legs, Vajrapani stands on a multi-petalled sun lotus. Bronze, fire-gilt, remains of iconographic painting on the face, turquoise and glass (?). On the back there is an opening, closed by a plate, for the salvage of consecration offerings. The base is cast separately and closed.
From an old private collection in southern Germany, collected before 2000
Dolon Nor is known for its oversized chased altar statues. Bronzes of these sizes occur more rarely, and are roughly classified with the bronzes of the Zanabazar schools of Outer Mongolia - Minor wear and traces of age
