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TIBET, 15TH CENTURY 8 ? in. (20.8 cm.) high
Acquired by the late Sr. Francisco Alarcon de Ponce de Leon (1914-1993) in Caracas, Venezuela, October 1976; thence by descent.
The present sculpture depicts an eleven-headed, eight-armed emanation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the patron deity of Tibet who embodies the compassion of all the buddhas. Here, the figure is executed in the iconographic form first described by the Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna during the second century. The form was later popularized in meditational texts by the Indian pandits Bhikshuni Shri and Jowo Atisha, and thereafter absorbed into the essential iconography of Vajrayana Buddhism.
The fifteenth-century origin of this sculpture is evidenced by the style of ornamentation and the shawl that covers the backside of the deity’s shoulders. The figure was once holding a mala and golden dharma wheel in the right hands, and a lotus, vase, and bow in the left hands.
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24563.