A monumental copper alloy fragment of a bodhisattva, Tibet, 11th / 12th century

Collection of Jack (1926-2017) and Muriel (1929-2019) Zimmerman, acquired in the 1960s or 1970s.

Tibet: Tradition and Change, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, 1997, cat. no. 44.

Pratapaditya Pal, Tibet: Tradition and Change, Albuquerque, 1997, cat. no. 44.

Hand gestures, posture and attributes are key to establishing the iconography of Buddhist sculpture. The identity of this monumental Tibetan figure is unclear due to its fragmentary condition but, as Pratapaditya Pal has observed, it likely represents one of the major bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya or Manjushri; see Tibet: Tradition and Change, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, 1997, cat. no. 44.

Bodhisattvas are often adorned with a diaphanous sash draped across the naked upper torso, as appears on this figure. Sashes with similar punched roundel decoration are seen on eleventh and twelfth century eastern Indian bronzes. Compare the bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara in the Berti Aschmann Collection, illustrated in Helmut Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, Zurich, 1995, cat. nos 38 and 46.

Eastern Indian sculptural influence is particularly evident in the figure’s tall three-leaf crown with jewel-topped posts either side of the front panel, redolent of the crowns of eleventh century bronze Buddhas from Kurkihar and stone from Antichak, Bihar, see Susan Huntington, The Pala-Sena Schools of Sculpture, Leiden, 1984, pls 69-71 and 151-53. The jewel-topped posts are also seen on the tall, three-panel crowns of early eleventh century sculpture at the now-destroyed monastery of Yemar, Tibet, recorded in the early 20th century by Fosco Maraini, in Roberto Vitali, Early Temples of Central Tibet, London, 1990, pp 41-46. This majestic bronze fragment dates to at least the 12th century, and possibly the 11th, with such clear influence from 11th century eastern Indian sculptural traditions: the occurrence of the tall Kurkihar-style crown in Tibetan bronzes diminishes markedly by the 12th century.