Lot Essay
The inscription on the current lot is a well-known passage from the Vajra Sutra and may be translated as: 'Everything in the world follows its own destiny, as if dream, illusion, foam, shadow, dew, and flashes; therefore we shall maintain the peaceful mind'.
Compare a similar pale celadon jade 'Sakyamuni' grotto bearing the same inscriptions and seal marks in the Tibet Museum, Lhasa, illustrated in Treasures from Snow Mountains - Gems of Tibetan Cultural Relics, Shanghai Museum, 2001, cat. no. 38, p. 110 (fig.1). Another similar carving, also bearing the same inscription and seal marks as the current lot, is in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, inventory number: 002729N000000000.
Compare a similar pale celadon jade 'Sakyamuni' grotto bearing the same inscriptions and seal marks in the Tibet Museum, Lhasa, illustrated in Treasures from Snow Mountains - Gems of Tibetan Cultural Relics, Shanghai Museum, 2001, cat. no. 38, p. 110 (fig.1). Another similar carving, also bearing the same inscription and seal marks as the current lot, is in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, inventory number: 002729N000000000.