PROBABLY WESTERN TIBET, 14TH-15TH CENTURY

This unusual bronze, with its mix of different regional styles and silverish-patina, represents the form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara known as Padmapani Lokeshvara, holder of the lotus, as identified by the lotus that blossoms at his left shoulder. Certain aspects of the bronze point to an origin in the western regions of Tibet, with a pronounced influence of Kashmiri sculptural and iconographic idioms: the face has been rendered with a pert bow-shaped mouth and elongated almond-shaped eyes that bear close resemblance to images from Kashmir from the eleventh century onwards; the torso is garbed with an antelope skin and simple beaded sacred thread that mirrors Western Tibetan images. Indeed, the right hand raised holding a mala (rosary) is an iconographic type most commonly seen in images of Padmapani Lokeshvara from Western Tibet and Kashmir; compare, for example, with a Western Tibetan bronze figure of Padmapani Lokeshvara illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 10571.
However, other elements of the bronze indicate the work likely dates from a period later than the time of the second transmission of Buddhism into Tibet (tenth through twelfth centuries). The figure is seated on an unusual lotus base, with a single band of lotus petals below a plain waist, that most closely resembles Nepalese prototypes from the fourteenth century onwards. The trim waist, with the tight-fitting dhoti secured with a jeweled belt, also resembles Nepalese works from the same period, and the overall lithe form of the body is typical of Central Tibetan images from the fifteenth century. Although enigmatic in terms of dating and exact origins, the bronze is clearly the work of an atelier fluent in the many different styles and schools of Buddhist art which concurrently dominated Tibetan Buddhist art in the high period of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.