PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTION SOLD TO BENEFIT MENTAL HEALTH CHARITIES IN ASIA

A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF PALDEN LHAMO

QIANLONG INCISED SEVEN-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF PALDEN LHAMO
QIANLONG INCISED SEVEN-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The fierce goddess is seated sideways on a flayed skin on top of a mule over a separately cast rocky base carved with waves surrounding a sea of swirling blood. The figure is shown with her right arm upraised and left holding a kapala, adorned in beaded jewellery and a garland of severed heads over her shoulders. Her wrathful face is cast with bulging eyes and a third eye on the forehead, below flame-like hair. There are traces of red pigment to the hair, mouth and the mouth of the mule. The base bears a seven-character inscription.
5 5/8 in. (14.5 cm.) overall high

Provenance

Sold at Christie’s London, 15 November 2000, lot 88

Brought to you by

Priscilla Kong

PKong@christies.com +852 2978 9958

Lot Essay

Palden Lhamo, or Sri Devi in Sanskrit, is the Tibetan Protectress who is normally portrayed riding a horse and is the most important guardian deity of Tibetan Buddhism. The fierce nature of this character, intensified by the fiery red hair, represents one of the many wrathful deities who are reputed to keep evil at bay. A closely related larger example in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, also inscribed, was included in the exhibition Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Hong Kong, 1992, and is illustrated in the catalogue p. 107, col. pl. 78.

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