EXCEPTIONNEL ENSEMBLE DES TROIS ROIS TIBéTAINS, SONSTEN GAMPO, TRISONG DETSEN ET RALPACEN, EN BRONZE DORé ET CUIVRE REPOUSSé TIBET, CA. 1800

AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE GROUP OF THREE GILT-COPPER-ALLOY AND REPOUSSé FIGURES 'THE THREE GREAT KINGS OF TIBET', TIBET CA. 1800

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de 46,8 à 49,8 cm, from 18? à 19? in.

This rare group of temple statues represents the Three Dharmachakra Kings who are revered in Tibet for establishing and maintaining the Buddhist faith, beginning in the seventh century with the Yarlung Dynasty (127BCE-841CE) king Songtsen Gampo (r. 617-650). The Jokhang temple in Lhasa, the most hallowed site in Tibet, is said to have been founded by the king to house Buddhist art brought as gifts by his royal Chinese and Nepalese consorts, the Tang Dynasty (618-907) Princess Wencheng and the Licchavi Dynasty (c. 400-879) Princess Bhrikuti Devi. The second Great King Trisong Detsen (r. 755-798) established Samye Ling as the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, and invited the Indian guru Padmasambhava to bring Buddhism to the land: Padmasambhava is revered by Tibetan Buddhists who regard him as a second Buddha. The third Great King Ralpachen (r. 815-838), expanded the region of Tibetan Buddhist influence, but was succeeded by his brother Langdarma (r. 838-841) who is traditionally thought to have instigated the persecution of Buddhism in Tibet that would last until the eleventh century.

The kings are depicted with robes, boots and turbans, each holding the Wheel of the Law (dharmachakra) in the left hand and stems of lotus flowers in the right. Songtsen Gampo is regarded as an emanation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and is identified by the head of Amitabha Buddha appearing from the turban above. Trisong Detsen is associated with Manjushri and identified by the sword supported by the lotus flower. And Ralpachen, traditionally bearded, is regarded as an emanation of the bodhisattva Vajrapani and identified by the vajra emblem on the lotus flower. A complete set of sculptures depicting the Three Great Kings is exceptionally rare. The group of three are depicted on thangkas, such as one in the Heinrich Harrer Collection, see Martin Brauen, Impressionen aus Tibet, Innsbruck, Frankfurt a. M., 1974, p. 177, pl. 101; one in Tibet House Museum, New Delhi and one in a private collection, see Jeff Watt, https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1162

A Tibetan monastery seal is attached to the right arm of each statue. Larger scale Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist temple sculpture, such as these statues of the Three Kings, are often assembled with repoussé bodies and separately cast heads and hands or arms, cf. the large gilt copper Sitatara in Museum Rietberg, with gilt repoussé body and separately cast and gilded head and arms, see Helmut Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment: The Berti Aschmann Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Museum Rietberg Zürich, Zürich, 1995, p. 145, cat. no. 91; and the Amitayus in the Qing Palace Collection, similarly made with gilt repoussé body and separately cast head and arms, see The Palace Museum, Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Beijing, 1992, p. 66, pls. 38-1, 38-2.