TIBET, 17TH CENTURY

The inscription on verso of the base identifies this figure as the Arhat Kanakavatsa, and places it fourth from center on the right side. This sculpture thus belongs to a set of twenty-five figures comprising the Buddha, two close disciples, the sixteen Arhats, two attendants, and the Guardians of the Four Directions. The Sixteen Arhats, or Elders, are Buddhist saints representing the earliest followers of the Buddha, and each has a standard iconographic form in artistic representation. Arhat Kanakavatsa typically holds a jeweled lasso, as in the present example, which is said to be a gift of the nagas.