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Lot Essay
This richly gilt and heavily cast plaque, with its integrated nimbus and aureole encircled by numerous small images of Amitabha Buddha on the front panel and two female musicians on the side, very likely originates from one of the great tashi gomang stupas once housed in Densatil Monastery, located in south-central Tibet. Founded in 1179 to the southeast of Lhasa, Densatil came to be recognized for what may have been the most spectacular achievement in Himalayan bronze casting across Tibet. The monastery once contained eight tashi gomang, or “Many Doors of Auspiciousness,” stupas, monumental structures possibly reaching up to five meters in height, constructed in tiers and encrusted with countless gilt-bronze plaques and freestanding figures representing the full Tibetan Buddhist pantheon. These stupas were produced with remarkable technical finesse, drawing on the artistry of Newar craftsmen and local Tibetan artisans.
Though tragically destroyed in the latter half of the twentieth century, the stupas survive in a handful of archival photographs taken by Pietro Francesco Mele during a 1948 expedition with the Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci, and in a small number of fragments now preserved in museums and private collections. Tucci, upon visiting the monastery, described the 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.”
Mele’s photographs, particularly those depicting the southeastern side of one tashi gomang stupa and the eastern side of the stupa positioned to the left of the five stupas along the eastern wall of Densatil’s main hall, published by Olaf Czaja and Adriana Proser in Golden Visions of Densatil: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery (New York, 2014, pp. 36–39), clearly show plaques of similar form to the present example on the fourth tier, known as the Tier of Buddhas. These plaques back images of the Tathāgata buddhas, specifically Akshobhya. Their L-shaped design, decorated only on two faces, follows the stepped, receding contours of the tashi gomang structure, where each tier narrowed toward a central image.
The Tier of Buddhas sat directly above the Tier of Offering Goddesses, whose plaques are far more frequently encountered at auction. For comparison, see a gilt-bronze frieze of offering goddesses sold at Christie’s New York, 13 September 2017, lot 626 (USD 396,500), or a gilt-copper alloy panel featuring musician goddesses sold at Christie’s Paris, 11 December 2024, lot 184 (EUR 453,600). In contrast, plaques depicting buddhas are considerably rarer. Two are held by the Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin; another was offered at Sotheby’s Paris, 12 December 2013, lot 216; and two more remain in private collections, all illustrated in Jean-Luc Estournel’s essay “About the 18 stupas and other treasures once at the Densatil monastery,” on asianart.com (figs. 47, 48, 109, 107, and 171). Two larger niche plaques, likely positioned behind the central buddha images on the Tier of Buddhas, are also known—one was sold at Christie’s New York, 23 March 1999, lot 111, and another is illustrated in Czaja and Proser, op. cit., p. 45, fig. 20.
Estournel suggests that the present plaque can be stylistically linked to the fourth tashi gomang, constructed circa 1386, based on the nimbus and aureole design and the configuration of surrounding buddhas. Given that the diminutive buddhas represent Amitabha, he further proposes that the plaque once served as a backdrop to a freestanding figure of Amitabha on the western side of the fourth stupa. For a comparable sculpture, see the gilt copper alloy figure of Amitabha sold at Bonhams New York, 17 March 2014, lot 16.
Though tragically destroyed in the latter half of the twentieth century, the stupas survive in a handful of archival photographs taken by Pietro Francesco Mele during a 1948 expedition with the Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci, and in a small number of fragments now preserved in museums and private collections. Tucci, upon visiting the monastery, described the 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.”
Mele’s photographs, particularly those depicting the southeastern side of one tashi gomang stupa and the eastern side of the stupa positioned to the left of the five stupas along the eastern wall of Densatil’s main hall, published by Olaf Czaja and Adriana Proser in Golden Visions of Densatil: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery (New York, 2014, pp. 36–39), clearly show plaques of similar form to the present example on the fourth tier, known as the Tier of Buddhas. These plaques back images of the Tathāgata buddhas, specifically Akshobhya. Their L-shaped design, decorated only on two faces, follows the stepped, receding contours of the tashi gomang structure, where each tier narrowed toward a central image.
The Tier of Buddhas sat directly above the Tier of Offering Goddesses, whose plaques are far more frequently encountered at auction. For comparison, see a gilt-bronze frieze of offering goddesses sold at Christie’s New York, 13 September 2017, lot 626 (USD 396,500), or a gilt-copper alloy panel featuring musician goddesses sold at Christie’s Paris, 11 December 2024, lot 184 (EUR 453,600). In contrast, plaques depicting buddhas are considerably rarer. Two are held by the Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin; another was offered at Sotheby’s Paris, 12 December 2013, lot 216; and two more remain in private collections, all illustrated in Jean-Luc Estournel’s essay “About the 18 stupas and other treasures once at the Densatil monastery,” on asianart.com (figs. 47, 48, 109, 107, and 171). Two larger niche plaques, likely positioned behind the central buddha images on the Tier of Buddhas, are also known—one was sold at Christie’s New York, 23 March 1999, lot 111, and another is illustrated in Czaja and Proser, op. cit., p. 45, fig. 20.
Estournel suggests that the present plaque can be stylistically linked to the fourth tashi gomang, constructed circa 1386, based on the nimbus and aureole design and the configuration of surrounding buddhas. Given that the diminutive buddhas represent Amitabha, he further proposes that the plaque once served as a backdrop to a freestanding figure of Amitabha on the western side of the fourth stupa. For a comparable sculpture, see the gilt copper alloy figure of Amitabha sold at Bonhams New York, 17 March 2014, lot 16.