DALI KINGDOM, 12TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE IRON KILA
DALI KINGDOM, 12TH CENTURY
The upper portion of the ring is cast with the head and torso of a figure of Buddha rising from lotus petals, with the wide mouth of the large head open in a grimace. The torso is adorned with a necklace of skulls, and wears a tall crown, all above a plain pointed dagger cast with apertures. The back is cast with a ring-loop attachment.
6 in. (15.6 cm.) high, stand

Exhibited

Rossi & Rossi Ltd., London, Beyond Lhasa, Sculpture and Painting from East and West Tibet, 7-30 November 2002, no. 9

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Lot Essay

A similar, slightly smaller (12.7 cm. long) kila cast in bronze is from the Qianxun Pagoda, Yunnan Province, now in the collection of the Yunnan Provincial Museum (fig. 1). Compare also to another small bronze kila (7.2 cm. long) with the handle cast in the form of a wrathful deity, included in the exhibition Art and Faith at the Crossroads: Tibeto-Chinese Buddhist Images and Ritual Implements from the 12th to the 15th Century, Zurich, 2013, no. 9.

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