A WOOL TANTRIC CARPET OF A FLAYED FEMALE DEITY
TIBET, 19TH CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no.16891 193 x 86 cm (76 x 33 7/8 in.)
注脚
毛料密宗人皮毯西藏 十九世紀This finely constructed carpet depicts a gruesome image of a flayed female deity (possibly Simhamukha) laying against a sea of blood, surrounded by severed heads and dried skulls with their eyes pulled out. Such tantric rugs are sat on by Vajrayana Buddhist practitioners in rituals associated with the worship of wrathful protectors, though they more typically depict flayed human or animal skins. The employment of fearsome images in Tibetan Buddhism is meant to remove obstacles on the path to enlightenment through sacrificial power. See an example with a male figure published in Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet, Stuttgart, 2020, p.344, no.457. Also, compare the present lots stylized cloud bands at each end with a tiger rug published in Rutherford, et al., Woven Wonders, Pasadena, 1992, p.57, no.33. Provenance Private European collection, acquired between 1990 and 1998