TIBET, 15TH-16TH CENTURY

This striking bronze image, luminous with its copper and silver inlays on the robes and the face, depicts Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158), the first of the "Jetsun Gongma Nga," the five founding patriarchs of the Sakya order. Although not the founder of Sakya monastery – which was established by his father, Khon Khonchog Gyalpo – and only the third Sakya Trizin, or throne holder of Sakya monastery, after his father and the translator, Bari Lotsawa, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo was considered to have consolidated the various Buddhist traditions and teachings that would establish the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. Sachen was said to have received the three Hevajra Tantras from his father at an early age, and developed a teaching known as Parting from the Four Attachments after a meditation on Manjushri under the guidance of Bari Lotsawa. He received the Lamdre teachings, a succession of oral transmissions going back to the eighth-ninth-century Indian mahasiddha, Virupa, from Zhangton Gonpaba Chobar; Sachen’s teachings and writing on Lamdre would become the founding principles of the Sakya school. Among his most important disciples were Phagmodrupa, who would go on to found his own branch of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as his sons, Sonam Tsemo and Dragpa Gyaltsen, the second and third Sakya Trizins respectively.
Compare the depiction of the great master, particularly the robes and his characteristic facial features and hairline, in the present bronze with a painting illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 944. See, also, a set of five bronzes depicting the Jetsun Gongma Nga sold at Bonhams New York, 21 March 2023, lot 521 for $2,940,375.
The inscription running along the base of the figure can be translated as: "I pay homage to the great Sakyapa, mighty lord of yoga, who is the spiritual friend of all [beings], acting in conformity with all living creatures! May all sentient beings develop in union with him! May good auspices prevail!"