A Polychromed Black Stone Figure of a Dakini, possibly Simhamukha

Compare with a related stone figure of Vajravarahi, another wrathful female deity, dated slightly earlier (illustrated below). Both feature dynamic figures standing in energetic poses and carved in the round, backed by openwork flaming halos to highlight the figure from all sides. While a large corpus of bronze figures of wrathful subjects exists, examples in stone are far rarer, making those such as the present work highly coveted. For two other stone figures, see P. Pal, Tibet: Tradition and Change, 1997, pp.106-9 and 112-13. In each, the central figure is similarly carved in the round and backed by an openwork aureole. Even more unusual is the amount of polychromy retained in the present example.