WESTERN TIBET, PROBABLY GUGE, 11TH-12TH CENTURY

This sculpture of a standing Avalokiteshvara most likely originates from the ancient Kingdom of Guge, a small Western Himalayan kingdom which was founded by King Yeshe-Ö and flourished from the tenth through twelfth centuries. Its artistic tradition was heavily influenced by Kashmiri sculptural and painting styles due to the presence of Kashmiri teachers and artisans active in the area during the period of the second dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet (c. 950-1200 CE). The leaded-brass alloy, the manner of modeling the rounded face with long, thin eyes, the pronounced belly, and the conjoined nimbus form in the present work are all reminiscent of Kashmiri prototypes that began appearing in Tibet at the turn of the eleventh century.
The style of depiction closely resembles murals in caves such as those at Ropa and Tsaparang, surrounding the Sutlej River which was once the heart of the western Tibetan Kingdom of Guge. The present sculpture, with its restrained representation, differs from the early masterpieces of Kashmir, which are defined by its exaggerated features. Compare the iconography, proportions, and rendering of the facial features of this present work with a related figural depiction of Avalokiteshvara attributed to the Tholing region of western Tibet from the eleventh century at the Los Angeles Museum of Art (acc. no. m.78.40), illustrated by C. Luczanits in Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies, New York, p. 111, fig. 2.4.
The figure of Avalokiteshvara in his eleven-headed and six-armed aspect represents the supreme embodiment of compassion. Buddhist tradition holds that this bodhisattva, seeing the suffering of countless sentient beings, was so moved to help alleviate others’ suffering that his single head multiplied to a tower of eleven in order to see in all directions, and his two arms multiplied such that he could reach out in all directions. In this unusual form of the eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara, he is depicted as possessing seven wrathful heads instead of one. They follow textual descriptions that describe his three peaceful faces, three fierce faces, three terrifying howling faces, and one laughing face, all surmounted by a head of the Buddha Amitabha, his teacher. He holds a fly whisk in his right hand, and a lotus, a branch, and a vase in the upper left hands. The fly whisk is an ancient Indian symbol representing the “sweeping away” of ignorance and mental afflictions. In this representation of the Compassionate One, the universal aspiration of a Buddhist deity and the regal status of a prince are united in a single figure that combines spiritual wisdom with worldly authority.