Two copper alloy stupas, Tibet, 13th - 14th century

Peaceful Wind, Santa Fe, 28th December 1994 and 3rd April 1995.

Maryland private collection.

Sotheby's New York, 18th September 2023, lot 178.

This type of stupa is associated with the Kadampa sect which revived Tibetan Buddhism after the 11th century. A closely related example in the British Museum is illustrated by W. Zwalf, ed, Buddhism: Art and Faith, London, 1985, cat. no. 198. Zwalf discusses a further stupa from this group, now in the Newark Museum. Its contents were examined and found to include barley grains, dated by radiocarbon analysis to circa 1230.

Compare also three stupas sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 30th June 2020, lots 6022, 6045 and 6062, from the collection of Cheng Huan.