House altar with a Ghanta/ ritual bell - Tibet 14th / 15th century, wood carved and formerly painted, remains of red pigment, of elongated form on a decorated base, centered head of a monk or ascetic with some furrows to the forehead backed by an ornamented drapery and flanked by two snow lions with backward facing heads, monk's head elaborately crafted as gilt bronze mask, altar corners topped by tapered multi-lobed bronze plaques with moulded small portraits of the Buddha Akshobya on a lotus throne, each carried by a miniature elephant, the symbolic animal of Akshobya, narrow lower border with Tibetan inscription and again elephants as corner figures, plaques are fire-gilt and set with faceted red gemstones, plaque dimensions c.11x (up to) 7cm / altar measures H.c.25x39x10cm, age and use, some missing or uneven parts around the edges to the Due to the forementioned forehead wrinkles as well as the relation to Buddha Akshobya the depicted unknown person could be associated with Jetsun Milarepa (ca.1052 - 1135) , the most famous Tibetan yogin and poet and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.It was in Abhirati, the pureland of Akshobhya, attainable only by 8th level bodhisattvas, where he is said to have obtained complete buddhahood. A Tibetan bronze ghanta - finely cast in two pieces, of conventional form, the dome cast with lotus petal lappets, Tibetan bija syllables, dharmachakra motifs and beaded borders,there is a band of vertical vajras to the base and another with horizontal vajras to the shoulder, the gilt bronze handle formed of a central Prajnaparamita head crowned with an eight-leaf diadem and long bejewelled earlobe, set below a 'full moon' base supporting a half vajra-shaped terminal with makara heads projecting four prongs joining at their tip around a central post, H.c.18cm,Provenance Private Collection Germany