A LARGE GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF SYAMATARA

TIBET, 14TH CENTURY

Footnotes

Syamatara, also known as Green Tara, is venerated as a liberator, able to free devotees from the chain of birth and rebirth and all the suffering that ensues. In myths, she emerged from the tears of Avalokiteshvara as he wept for the suffering of all sentient beings. It is a testament to her supreme compassion and agency. As such, she is depicted with her right leg outstretched, ready to respond to one's suffering, and her right hand in the gesture of charity.

Practiced in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, her various forms are found in all classes of tantra. Her ten-syllable mantra and the short tantra known as the 'Twenty-One Praises of Tara', spoken by the Buddha Samantabhadra, are memorized and popularly recited by all Tibetans from the time of childhood.

A Newari master most likely cast this rare and commanding sculpture while working under the patronage of a leading monastery in Central Tibet, possibly Shalu. Richly gilded and adorned with semi-precious stones, the treatment of the crown, prominent chin, wiry tresses across the shoulders, and modeling of the body are all consistent with the rendering of the Five Tathagatas in the South Chapel of Shalu monastery, painted in the second quarter of the 14th century.

She also compares with a more attenuated Tara and Vajradhara, both held in the Shalu monastery, published in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, 2001, pp.963 & 967, nos.233B & 231E. Also see a Vajradhara in the Jokhang in Lhasa, (ibid., p.1031, no.255B), and a closely related figure in scale and detail sold at Sotheby's, New York, 23 March 2007, lot 55.

Provenance
Estate of Roy Kirk, San Francisco, acquired in Asia, 1960s, by repute
J. Russell Wherritt Trust, purchased from the above, 1990s
Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2012, lot 1097


銅鎏金綠度母像
西藏，十四世紀
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網2144號
高47.7釐米（18英寸）

8,000,000-12,000,000 港元

綠度母又名多羅菩薩，被奉為救世者，幫助眾生解脫生死苦海，命終往生極樂世界。相傳，觀世音菩薩因慈悲天下眾生而傷心掉淚，而綠度母即為他眼淚的化身。其法相慈悲無畏，右腿向下舒展，表示隨時準備起身救度苦難眾生，右手施與願印，有賜護及普度之意義。

藏傳佛教所有教派均有綠度母，其在密法中以各種不同的形式出現。她的十字大明咒及由普賢菩薩口授的"二十一度母贊"是所有藏人童年時就背誦的佛經。

此尊罕見且威嚴的造像可能為一位尼瓦爾大師在某藏中名寺（可能為夏魯寺）的支持下所鑄。其鎏金華麗，飾以半寶石，頭冠之樣式，突出之臉頦，垂肩之髮綹，及其肢體造型，都跟夏魯寺南殿於十四世紀上半葉所繪之五方如來吻合。

其風格可比照藏於夏魯寺的一尊度母像與一尊金剛總持像， 參閱馮·施羅德，西藏佛教造像，2001年，頁963及967，233B及231E號；亦可參閱一尊藏於拉薩大昭寺的金剛總持（出處同上，頁1031，255B號），以及一尊尺寸與細節都相似的造像，於紐約蘇富比於2007年3月23日售出（拍品55號）。

來源
Roy Kirk收藏，舊金山，傳於1960年代購自亞洲
J. Russell Wherritt信托，於1990年代購自上者
邦瀚斯，紐約，2012年3月19日，拍品1097號