This sculpture of seated Manjushri brandishing a sword most likely originates from the regions of Western Tibet, possibly from the ancient Kingdom of Guge, a small kingdom which was founded by King Yeshe-Ö and flourished from the tenth through twelfth centuries. Its artistic tradition was heavily influenced by Kashmiri sculptural and painting styles due to the presence of Kashmiri teachers and artisans active in the area during the period of the second dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet (c. 950-1200 CE).
The leaded-brass alloy, the manner of modeling the rounded face with long, thin eyes, the delineated flesh of the belly, the conjoined nimbus and long, sharp petals of the lotus base form, and the sun-and-moon motif at the top of the aureole in the present work are all reminiscent of Kashmiri prototypes that began appearing in Tibet at the turn of the eleventh century. Compare, for example, with a bronze figure of Vajradharma from Western Tibet, dated to the tenth-eleventh century, originally in the collection of Baroness Eva Bessenyey and sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2019, lot 627 for US$40,000; the Bessenyey example, which similarly sports the sun-and-moon motif, as well as a similar conjoined nimbus and treatment of the lotus base, bears an inscription attributing it to the collection of the monk Lhatsun Nagaraja, son of the ruler of Western Tibet, Lama Yeshe Od (950-1040), and thus securely dating it to the eleventh century or earlier. Other comparable examples include a Western Tibetan bronze figure of Vairochana, similarly dated to the tenth-eleventh century, and with similar treatments of the lotus base, nimbus, and overall physiognomy, sold at Christie’s New York, 17 March 2021, lot 445 for US$47,500.