A very rare gilt-bronze figure of a bodhisattva, probably Cintamanichakra, Tang dynasty

Sing's Antique Gallery, Hong Kong, 20th November 1998.

Perhaps the most popular and well-known Buddhist deity in China, Avalokiteshvara, or Guanyin, is known by worshippers in many forms, among them Ekadashamuka, Amogopasha, Shadakshari, Water Moon Guanyin, and more rarely, Cintamanichakra. As Buddhism evolved in China, Avalokiteshvara’s varied forms were introduced through the transmission and translation of different sutras. As Chun-fang Yu mentions in 'Guanyin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteshvara', in Marsha Weidner, Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850, Kansas, 1994, p. 154, one of the earliest esoteric Avalokiteshvara texts was translated into Chinese in the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420 A.D.). In the Northern Zhou dynasty (557-581 A.D.), further esoteric scriptures focusing on Avalokiteshvara were introduced, and through these texts, the tantric forms of the bodhisattva were propagated. 

Cintamanichakra is depicted variably with anywhere from two to six arms but is almost always represented holding the wish-granting jewel (cintamani) and the dharma wheel (chakra), as found in the present example. Compare the present work with another Tang-dynasty gilt-bronze but with six-arms instead of four, originally from the collection of Trezevant Branam Winfrey, sold in these rooms, 20th March 2019, lot 553. Four-armed depictions are exceedingly rare, and at this time, no other four-armed examples in gilt-bronze appear to be known.