Shang Könchog Pel gilt copper Tibet

The finely cast and gilded portrait bronze depicting Shang Könchog Pel wearing a flowing robe over the long skirt, shemdap, and a sleeveless jacket, dhonka, his hands in the teaching position, dharmachakra mudra, and seated in vajraparyankasana on a double lotus pedestal inscribed on its upper surface.

Inscription:

zhang dkon mchog dpal la na mo:

homage to zhang dkon mchog dpal.

The Sakya order lama Shang Könchok Pel (born c. 1250) was a disciple of the renowned Sakya hierarch Phagpa (1235-1280), who was held in high regard by Khubilai Khan (1215-1294), the Mongol emperor and founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Shang Könchok Pel was a lineage master of the Lamdre, an important Sakya teaching concerning the Hevajra tantra. He handed the teaching on to his pupil Chöje Draphupa Sonam Pel (1277-1346), the lama depicted in the pair to the present statue, Lot 305. 

This impressive portrait statue is made in the post Yongle style with a tall lotus pedestal with thin and elegant petals between strings of large rounded pearls. The lama's loosely draped robe falls over the torso and legs in deep folds and gathers onto the pedestal in the Yongle manner. Furthermore, a wide fold of cloth falls from the left shoulder in a sheer plane just as seen in Yongle sculpture such as the Speelman Buddha, see Visions of Enlightenment, The Speelman collects ion of Important Early Ming Buddhist Bronzes, Replica Shoes 's, Hong Kong, October 7, 2006, lot 808. As with the vast majority of Yongle works the sculpture is richly gilded. The engraved textile patterns of the lama's sleeveless jacket depict the designs of the Chinese brocades from which these patchwork jackets are traditionally made. The engraving technique is not found in the Yongle oeuvre but is a popular decorative device in Tibetan fifteenth century bronzes, cf. a finely worked fifteenth century portrait bronze of the Tibetan translator Brogmi, see Ulrich on Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, 2001, p. 1073, pl. 276C.