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Lot Essay
This charming sculpture depicts the Bon creation deity Sangpo Bumtri. He is considered as one of the ‘Four Transcendent Lords’ of the Bon religion, along with Satrig Ersang, Tonpa Shenrab, and Shenlha Odkar. According to the sadhana of Sangpo Bumtri, “he appears in the form of a sixteen year old, he is endowed with an immortal and everlasting body. Those who perform his practices and regard him as their personal deity may obtain inestimable lifespans.”The praise to Sangpo Bumtri from his sadhana reads as follows:
“Sitting on a bright red lotus: The Creator, Sangpo Bumtri!
The color of his body is the essence of silver,
His ornaments, garments and palace
They are decorated with silver light.
To teach in the eternal sense of examples,
He holds the invincible banner.
He sits on a seat supported by powerful garudas.
Slayers, by skillful means, of living beings,
Majestic in the power of its magical emanations,
I, together with the givers of generous offerings,
I offer obeisances, praises and sacrifices
To remove the impurities of countless sentient beings.”
In the present work, Sangpo Bumtri sits upon a throne supported by garudas. He holds his right hand extended in front of him in the Karana Mudra , a gesture that symbolizes the expulsion of obstacles such as illness and negative emotions. The lotus on his right shoulder supports a victory banner, the distinguishing iconographic feature of Sangpo Bumtri. His left hand claspsthe stem of a lotus and is positioned in the gesture of equanimity.
Early sculptural depictions of Sangpo Bumtri are particularly rare, and the present work likely belonged to a larger group of sculptures depicting the ‘Four Transcendent Lords’. Compare the inscription and overall style of the present work with a highly related sculpture of Satrig Ersang illustrated on page 41 of Per Kværne’s "The Bon Religion of Tibet", London, 1995; illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 73104.
The work is stylistically related to a larger corpus of bronzes identified as coming from a ‘Tsang Atelier,’ a workshop in the Tsang province of South-Central Tibet. This workshop produced a number of related bronzes and favored incising and inlaying of precious metals over the use of gilding and stone embellishing. The stylistic characteristics include a square-shaped face and upright posture, with an almost tubular torso. Compare the square-shaped face, the stylized crown, and the overall patina of the bronze with a sculpture of Vajradhara sold at Christie’s Paris on 14 June 2023, lot 192, for 100,800 Euros.
The inscription reads as follows:
སྲིད་པ་མཆ༼སངས་༽་པོ་འབུམ་འབུམ་ཁྲི་ལ་ན་མོ།
srid pa mcha x [sangs?] po 'bum khri la na mo/
I pay homage to the creator, Sangpo Bumtri.
“Sitting on a bright red lotus: The Creator, Sangpo Bumtri!
The color of his body is the essence of silver,
His ornaments, garments and palace
They are decorated with silver light.
To teach in the eternal sense of examples,
He holds the invincible banner.
He sits on a seat supported by powerful garudas.
Slayers, by skillful means, of living beings,
Majestic in the power of its magical emanations,
I, together with the givers of generous offerings,
I offer obeisances, praises and sacrifices
To remove the impurities of countless sentient beings.”
In the present work, Sangpo Bumtri sits upon a throne supported by garudas. He holds his right hand extended in front of him in the Karana Mudra , a gesture that symbolizes the expulsion of obstacles such as illness and negative emotions. The lotus on his right shoulder supports a victory banner, the distinguishing iconographic feature of Sangpo Bumtri. His left hand claspsthe stem of a lotus and is positioned in the gesture of equanimity.
Early sculptural depictions of Sangpo Bumtri are particularly rare, and the present work likely belonged to a larger group of sculptures depicting the ‘Four Transcendent Lords’. Compare the inscription and overall style of the present work with a highly related sculpture of Satrig Ersang illustrated on page 41 of Per Kværne’s "The Bon Religion of Tibet", London, 1995; illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 73104.
The work is stylistically related to a larger corpus of bronzes identified as coming from a ‘Tsang Atelier,’ a workshop in the Tsang province of South-Central Tibet. This workshop produced a number of related bronzes and favored incising and inlaying of precious metals over the use of gilding and stone embellishing. The stylistic characteristics include a square-shaped face and upright posture, with an almost tubular torso. Compare the square-shaped face, the stylized crown, and the overall patina of the bronze with a sculpture of Vajradhara sold at Christie’s Paris on 14 June 2023, lot 192, for 100,800 Euros.
The inscription reads as follows:
སྲིད་པ་མཆ༼སངས་༽་པོ་འབུམ་འབུམ་ཁྲི་ལ་ན་མོ།
srid pa mcha x [sangs?] po 'bum khri la na mo/
I pay homage to the creator, Sangpo Bumtri.