A large silk embroidered tapestry depicting Eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara

TIBET, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A large silk embroidered tapestry depicting Eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara
Tibet, early 18th Century
Finely embroidered with Avalokiteshvara standing on a pedestal with his thousand arms radiating around him, all on a yellow ground within a rectangular reserve, his primary hands in ajali mudra, his secondary hands holding a lotus, wheel, mala, and bow, attended by six devotees amidst swirling clouds, the border alternating with various seated deities enclosed by multi-colored mandorlas along with devotees upon clouds and mountaintops, mounted on a stretcher
99 x 56 in. (251.4 x 143.2 cm.)

Provenance

Jacques Marchais

Literature

Chgyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, Visual Dharma: The Buddhist Art of Tibet, 1975, p. 53 illustrated.

Exhibited

Jacques Marchais Center of Tibetan Art, New York

Lot Essay

This form of Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of compassion, is one of the most complex in the Buddhist pantheon. Avalokiteshvara vowed to Buddha Amitabha to save all sentient beings. Doubting that he could accomplish his task, his head cracked into a thousand pieces until Amitabha blessed him again. His heads were reconstituted into the eleven-headed form demonstrating his omniscience while his thousand arms remained a symbol of his awesome power. An eye on each palm signifies the union of wisdom and compassion.

The dating of this embroidery is consistent with a carbon-14 test, ETH Zrich, sample no. ETH-18802, with a probable date of 1728.