A BRONZE FIGURE DEPICTING KHASARPANA LOKESHVARA Tibet, 13th/14th Century

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13046.

With losses to polychrome and cold gold at face, hair and neck. Bending to lotus flower at proper left shoulder. Minor loss to the finial at top of hair. 4 mm crack and repair at back of proper right arm above the elbow. With scattered minor casting flaws at base. 1 to 2 mm scratches to raised right hand.
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Khasarpana Lokeshvara is the esoteric form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. He is seated on a double-lotus throne in lalitasana with the right foot extended and held by a lotus. The right hand is raised in sharanagamana mudra and the left hand hold the stem of a lotus. His piled plaits are topped with a foliate finial, and a small figure of Amitabha rests on the crown of his head. He wears a loose dhoti incised with a delicate geometric motif, secured at the waist with an intricately knotted sash, and a beaded yagnopavitam across the left shoulder. The hands and feet are exquisitely cast. 

This manifestation as Khasarpana ("sky-gliding") Lokeshvara was popularized in Pala-period India and frequently depicted in stone. Distinctive Pala and Northeastern Indian characteristics were assimilated into Tibet after the 12th Century, as seen in the non-gilt schools of early Tibetan bronze sculpture, such as the current work.

In addition to the subject matter, the stylistic conventions of the current work are highly reminiscent of Pala-period India. Compare the coiled and plaited hairstyle and high jatamukata; the distinctive facial features—the arched eyebrows, the heavy-lidded almond shaped eyes, the rectangular urna; the double-knotted dhoti belt, and the starburst shape of the eight-petaled lotus flower with protruding bud, with an 11th/12th Century schist sculpture depicting Khasarpana Lokeshvara in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of Asian Art at Asia Society, see Denise Patry Leidy, Treasures of Asian Art, New York, 1994, p. 38, cat. no. 19.  

Also compare the design of the throne and base on the current work with a 13th Century bronze depicting Achala, in particular the single row of pearls on the upper base, the lotuses with double-pointed petal tips, and the tiered lower base element; see Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 1112-3, cat. no. 291b.