TIBET, 16TH-17TH CENTURY

This rare bronze depicts Padmasambhava, the first transmitter of Buddhism into Tibet and the founder of the Nyingma sect of Tibetan Buddhism, surrounded by his eight manfestations and two disciples. The former sits on a lotus base supported by a stalk emerging from another lotus base, the former are elegantly arranged in loops of lotus stem that forms an aureole around the central figure. Compare with another bronze figural example of Padmasambhava surrounded by his disciples in a lotus-stalk aureole, illustrated by T. Chen, Sattvas and Rajas: The Culture and Art of Tibetan Buddhism, 2004, p. 121, cat. no. 73. See, also, another example in the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 65283.