figure BM-1972-0301.1

Period:Unknown Production date:12thC (probably)
Materials:bronze, gold,
Technique:gilded, cast,
Subjects:deity
Dimensions:Height: 45.50 centimetres

Description:
Figure of Lokapāla Vaiśravaṇa. nine-headed, eighteen-armed Defender of the North holds up a conch, skull, toad, tortoise, pearl, head, ‘vajras’, and, across his shoulders, an outstretched body. Seven of the heads are crowned with a skull, the central three flanked by snakes. Around the waist he wears the skin of a flayed head, hands and feet. Made of gilded cast bronze.
IMG


Comments:Zwalf 1985This Chinese Lamaistic image is an especially good example of post-Tang bronze casting. The detail is everywhere sharp and vigorous, giving great force to the fierce and macabre aspects of the deity. It has not been possible to identify the image with certainty, but it most probably represents a Tantric version of the Lokapāla Vaiśravaṇa. The figure appears in a 12th-century Yunnanese handscroll, alongside a more conventional Vaiśravaṇa (see no. 297). The nine-headed, eighteen-armed Defender of the North holds up a conch, skull, toad, tortoise, pearl, head, ‘vajras’, and, across his shoulders, an outstretched body. Seven of the heads are crowned with a skull, the central three flanked by snakes. Around the waist he wears the skin of a flayed head, hands and feet; these can also be seen along the tops of later Tibetan ‘thangkas’ and temple hangings. Lutz 1991:In this catalogue the guardian figure’s identification is more ambiguous. It is captioned as ‘Esoteric form of the Vaisrana (?) or Garuda king (?)’ and dated with question mark to the 12th century AD. Its elemental composition places it within the group of sculpture known from the Dali Kingdom in Yunnan, and hence neither Chinese nor Tibetan.