TIBET, PALA STYLE, 13TH CENTURY

Carried out in a distinctly Pala style, with the tall, circular lotus base, pronounced tribhanga pose, tall, flat chignon of hair and the large triangular leaf of the crown, the present work was likely produced in Tibet by an artist familiar with the idioms of Northeastern Indian Buddhist art. The figure represents the form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara known as Padmapani Lokeshvara, identified by the lotus stem held in the left hand and the diminutive image of Amitabha in the hair. Although the hollow circular lotus base suggests it might have been part of a triad of figures, the large size of the figure indicates that it may have been a single-image bronze. An almost identical example of similar size in the collection of the Jokhang is illustrated by U. von Schroeder in Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, vol. I, Hong Kong, 2003, p. 309, fig. 105C; von Schroeder posits that it is a single-image bronze that is missing a separately-cast base and aureole.