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Lot Essay
This figure represents a serpent king, Nagaraja, with multi-headed cobras emerging from his headdress. His regal character is emphasized by the abundance of ornaments and richly inlaid jewelry and his graceful gesture of supplication and adoration must be considered as among the most iconic of the Densatil group.
The monastery of Densatil, established southeast of Lhasa in 1179, housed perhaps the most spectacular achievement of Himalayan bronze casting in all of Tibet. Its eight tashi gomang (“Many doors of Auspiciousness”) stupas, each possibly up to five meters high, were arranged in tiers completely covered with gilt-bronze plaques and bedecked with a multitude of freestanding gilt-bronze Buddhist figures, an enormous display of the whole pantheon of Tibetan Buddhist deities, expertly crafted by the finest Newar artists and local craftsmen. Tragically destroyed in the second half of the twentieth century, all that remains now are a handful of photographs taken by the Italian Pietro Francesco Mele (who visited the site with the famed Tibetologist Guiseppe Tucci in 1948) and a small group of salvaged fragments which have been preserved in private collections and museums. Upon visiting the remote and immaculately preserved monastery in 1948, Tucci described the tashi gomang stupas as “smothered with a wealth of carvings and reliefs that knew no limits. The whole Olympus of Mahayana seemed to have assembled on those monuments.”
According to Jean-Luc Estournel, this figure was likely part of the 1360 Tashi Gomang, commissioned by Changchub Gyaltsen (1302-1364), the founder of the Phagmodrupa dynasty, for his brother Dragpa Gyaltsen, the Eighth Abbot of Densatil. The jewels are characteristic of other figures seen on the east side of the stupa.
The monastery of Densatil, established southeast of Lhasa in 1179, housed perhaps the most spectacular achievement of Himalayan bronze casting in all of Tibet. Its eight tashi gomang (“Many doors of Auspiciousness”) stupas, each possibly up to five meters high, were arranged in tiers completely covered with gilt-bronze plaques and bedecked with a multitude of freestanding gilt-bronze Buddhist figures, an enormous display of the whole pantheon of Tibetan Buddhist deities, expertly crafted by the finest Newar artists and local craftsmen. Tragically destroyed in the second half of the twentieth century, all that remains now are a handful of photographs taken by the Italian Pietro Francesco Mele (who visited the site with the famed Tibetologist Guiseppe Tucci in 1948) and a small group of salvaged fragments which have been preserved in private collections and museums. Upon visiting the remote and immaculately preserved monastery in 1948, Tucci described the tashi gomang stupas as “smothered with a wealth of carvings and reliefs that knew no limits. The whole Olympus of Mahayana seemed to have assembled on those monuments.”
According to Jean-Luc Estournel, this figure was likely part of the 1360 Tashi Gomang, commissioned by Changchub Gyaltsen (1302-1364), the founder of the Phagmodrupa dynasty, for his brother Dragpa Gyaltsen, the Eighth Abbot of Densatil. The jewels are characteristic of other figures seen on the east side of the stupa.