Tibet, Nairatmya (5)

Undated, Tibet, Shrine to a Dakini, painted clay (?), photo by Dudul Dorjay, 2011, on virginia.edu, at the Drowolung monastery (Tibet).

This is very likely Nairatmya, a meditational deity whose name means ‘selflessness’, in her dakini appearance. She has three eyes, bared fangs, bristly orange hair, and wears an animal skin around her waist topped with a belt with a buckle shaped like a visvajra. She is adorned with wrathful ornaments, including a five-skull crown and a garland of skulls, and armbands and anklets with an eight-spoke wheel motif. She sits on a corpse and holds a flaying knife and a skull cup before her chest. On the prabhamandala we can see a row of vajra sceptres (around her), scrolling leaves, eight female deities, each standing on a lotus pedestal with a flaming mandorla, and a seated figure at the top, probably Naropa as abbot of Nalanda.

The Drowolung monastery was built by Marpa, the famous 11th century translator(see here ). According to Cécile Ducher on Oxfordre.com , ‘Marpa’s life can be read in light of the Hevajra tantra […] such as the name of his wife Dakmema (the Tibetan rendering of Hevajra’s consort, Nairatmya), his eight consorts (the eight goddesses in Hevajra’s mandala), the interaction with Naropa […]’.

Tibet, Machig Labdron (2)

15th century, Tibet, female adept or Buddhist goddess, gilt copper, 15,8 cm, photo: courtesy of Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet Volume Two, Visual Dharma Publications, Hong Kong, p. 1073 pl. 276B, Potala Collection, Bla ma lha khang inventory nº 1039, Lhasa (Tibet).

An intriguing figure with a wrathful countenance and a skull crown, yet her hair is dyed with blue pigment instead of the red-orange colour usually seen on wrathful deities. The author suggests this could be a portrait of Machig Labdron, whom we have seen depicted as a wisdom dakini, with three eyes, blue hair, a five-skull crown, bone jewellery, standing on her left foot and holding a drum and a bell.

16th-17th century, Tibet, Machig Labdron, gilt copper, 19,5 cm, photo as before, p. 1055 pl. 267B, at the Palkor Chode monastic complex in Gyantse (Tibet).

Here she has a skull cup in her left hand. We saw another example on Bonhams  , and a seated one at the Penn Museum .

15th century, Tibet, Machik Labdrön, painted clay (on a wooden armature), no size given, photo by Dudul Dorjay, 2011, on virginia.edu, at the Shije shrine in the Kumbum, Gyantse (Tibet).

This image is placed next to a larger one of Padampa Sangye. Machig Labdron holds a drum in her right hand and probably had an attribute in the other (of which the forefinger is missing).

Tibet, Vajrayogini – buddha and dakini

Labelled ‘Kathmandu Valley, Vajradevi’, 17th century (more likely circa 15th century, Tibet, Densatil, Vajravarahi’, gilt bronze with stone inlay, 37 cm,  photo on wisdomlib, at the National Museum of Nepal.

We have seen many Vajravarahi statues from the former Densatil monastery with this distinctive type of pedestal.

18th century, Tibet?, Vajrayogini, gilt bronze, 13 cm, Northern Himalayan Gallery on wisdomlib, at the National Museum of Nepal.

18th century, Tibet?, Vajrayogini, bronze, 23 cm, Northern Himalayan Gallery on wisdomlib, at the National Museum of Nepal.

17th century, Tibet, Sarvabuddhadakini, bronze with polychromy (and stones now missing), 16 cm, private collection, European and Asian Art lot 290, 6th June 2023, Loeckx.

18th-19th century, Tibet, Sarvabuddhadakini, gilt bronze repoussé with cold gold and stone inlay, 15,5 cm, private collection, Auction 819 China 1, lot 71, Nagel

Tibet, various female entities (6)

15th century, Tibet, dakini? (labelled ‘Ma- gcig Lab-Sgron’), gilt bronze with cold gold, pigment, and stone inlay, 11,2 cm, private collection, Auction 819 lot 14, 7th December 2023, Nagel.

The famous female Tibetan teacher Machig Labdron (1055-1149) is usually depicted as a wisdom dakini , with a peaceful appearance, standing in a dancing posture, and holding a drum in her right hand and a vajra bell in the other. The above has a fierce countenance and holds a skull cup in her left hand.

16th-17th century, Tibet, wrathful female (labelled ‘probably Nairatmya’), gilt bronze, 13,4 cm, private collection, Auction 819 as before, lot 74, Nagel

This figure has an extremely wrathful countenance and a fat belly, like rakshashis. She brandishes the hilt of a (broken) sword in her right hand while making a threatening gesture with the other. Quite unusual for Nairatmya, whose attributes are a flaying knife, a skull cup, and a ritual staff.

Unlabelled (15th century?, Tibet, wrathful female, painted clay on a wooden structure), photo on HAR, at the Gyantse Kumbum (Tibet).

A rare image of a wrathful deity with a yakshi appearance, with three heads and four arms. She stands with her feet apart, wielding a sword in her main right hand and holding an eight-spoke wheel in the upper left one (those are the attributes of Mahapratisara). The upper right hand makes a threatening gesture (karana mudra), there is a ritual staff against her left side.

Tibet, various dakinis (14)

14th-15th century, Tibet, Vajraghanta, gilt copper alloy with turquoise inlay, 24,2 cm, The Claude de Marteau Collection Part III, lot 15, 14th June 2023, Bonhams (Paris).

We don’t often see a sculpture of a female (or male) gatekeeper. Ghanta is the one who guards the North gate on some mandalas (the other three are Ankusha, Pasha, and Shrinkhala). She is depicted with a yaksha appearance, brandishing a vajra bell (ghanta) in her right hand and making a threatening gesture with the other (tarjani mudra). According to Jing Wen from Bonhams, she acts here as a dakini protecting Kurukulla .

17th century, Tibet, Kurukulla, gilt copper alloy, 13,5 cm, The Claude de Marteau Collection Part IV, lot 7, 6th October 2023, Bonhams (Hong Kong).

The red dakini Kurukulla is a goddess of wealth and a meditational deity, and sometimes a wrathful aspect of Tara. She has one head with three eyes and two to eight arms. In her two arm form she usually holds a bow and an arrow, but she may hold a skull cup and a drum instead. The four-arm form has more variants. The above appears to be holding a noose in the lower left hand, in which case the right hand probably held a hook, now lost.

16th-17th century (or earlier?), Tibet, dakini, gilt bronze with turquoise inlay, 12 cm, private collection, Fine Chinese Works of Art lot 457, 24th May 2023, Woolley & Wallis.

Seated on a victim, this female character with a third eye holds a flaying knife in her right hand and a skull cup in the other. She is adorned with a skull-crown, a garland of skulls, bone jewellery and a matching cross-belt. Her hair is arranged in a large topknot, rather like a mahasiddha.

Nepal, wrathful female deities

17th-18th century, Nepal, Vajrayogini, gilt copper alloy, 18,1 cm, The Claude de Marteau Collection part IV, lot 11, 6th October 2023, Bonhams (Hong Kong).

Circa 15th century, Nepal, Khechara Vajrayogini, gilt copper alloy, 16,2 cm, The Claude de Marteau Collection part III, lot 12, 14th June 2023, Bonhams (Paris).

Vajrayogini in her sarvabuddhadakini aspect, standing on two victims atop a single-lotus base, her right hand holding a flaying knife down while the other raises a skull cup full of blood to her lips. She is naked, adorned with bone jewellery, a bone apron, a skull crown, and a garland of skulls.

Circa 17th century, Nepal, dakini, wood and gilt copper alloy, 12,5 cm, The Triay Collection of Himalayan Art lot 104, 15th December 2022, Bonhams (Paris).

A four-armed dakini, probably an attendant in a set of deities, with a flaying knife and a skull cup in her main hands.

Tibet, four-arm dakinis (3)

17th century, Tibet, Kakasya, copper alloy, 19 cm, The Claude de Marteau Collection Part III lot 8, 14th June 2023, Bonhams (Paris).

This masterpiece was made in the same workshop as another four-arm bird-headed female with a dakini appearance seen on HAR. Like her, she holds a drum in her lower right hand, a skull cup and a flaying knife in her main hands (not crossed over her heart in this case), and the upper hand holds a ritual staff – a standard iconography for similar four-armed retinue figures from the Chakrasamvara mandala (statues of Kakasya seen previously had two arms only). See more about Kakasya on the Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia. We have also seen a dog-headed figure in the same style on Bonhams).

14th-15th century, Tibet, Kurukulla, gilt copper alloy, 26,4 cm, photo from The Claude de Marteau Collection Part III as before, lot 14.

Kurukulla, goddess of wealth, meditational deity, and a red dakini, has one head and 2 to 8 arms. In her four-arm form her attributes vary. The above holds a bow and the stem of a flower in her left hands, the upper right hand is placed as if to draw an arrow, the lower one may have clutched a hook. She wears bone jewellery, a garland of severed heads, and has an irate countenance (yet her hair is dye blue, not red).

Pala India, Nairatmya

11th-12th century, Northeastern India, Nairatmya, gilt copper, 20 cm, photo: courtesy of Ulrich von Schroeder (Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Volume One, Visual Dharma Publications, Hong Kong, p. 284, pl. 93A), Potala Collection, inventory nº 1212 at the Lima Lhakhang in Lhasa (Tibet).

A meditational deity and the consort of Shri Hevajra, Nairatmya, whose name means ‘selflessness’, has one head with flaming hair, three eyes, and bared fangs, two hands, in which she holds a flaying knife and a skull cup, two legs. She sits or stands on one or two corpses, naked, adorned with jewellery, a bone apron, a garland of severed heads, and usually has a ritual staff in the crook of her left arm (missing here).

Tibet, Vajravarahi (21)

Undated, Tibet, White Vajravarahi, gilt metal, private collection, photo on HAR

It is most unusual for this female deity to be standing on a victim with her right foot (unless the picture is the wrong way round) while the raised one is supported by scrolling lotuses, she usually stands on the left foot. Equally unusual is what looks more like a vajra sceptre  than a flaying knife in her right hand, but the head of a sow protruding from her right temple clearly identifies her as the Vajravarahi aspect of Vajrayogini.

1757-1913, Tibet, Phong-dong-ma, (the keeper of the Eastern Side), gilt bronze, photo and details on  Huntington Archive , at the Indian Museum in Kolkata (India).

This wrathful female with the head of a sow and four arms brings to mind a form of Vajravarahi known as Vajraghona, who holds a hook and a vajra sceptre in her right hands, a noose and a skull cup in the left ones, and has a ritual staff in the crook of her left arm. She stands on a single victim and wears a leopard skin around her waist.

Pala India, Vajravarahi

Circa 9th century, Northeastern India, Vajravarahi, parcel-gilt copper alloy with silver inlay, 7 cm, The Triay Collection of Himalayan Art lot 146,  Bonhams (Paris).

Probably the oldest form of Vajrayogini, she is at once identified through the sow’s head that protrudes from her right temple (when in embrace with Samvara, she is depicted without it). There are various forms of Vajravarahi. In the standard depiction, she has one head with a third eye and bared fangs, two legs, and two arms. She is adorned with a skull crown, bone jewellery, a garland of severed heads – rather simplified in this case. Her attributes are a flaying knife that she wields at head level, a skull cup  in her left hand held before her heart, a ritual staff resting against her left arm. She stands on one foot, like a dakini, crushing a victim atop a lotus base (missing here). The latter is Red Kalaratri, who embodies ignorance.