A COPPER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF KALA JAMBHALA TIBET, 13TH – 14TH CENTURY

standing in alidhasana atop a supine figure of Yellow Jambhala holding a jewel in the raised right hand, all supported on a lotus base with a beaded upper edge, holding a kapala in the raised right hand and a jewel-spewing mongoose in the left, the corpulent body garlanded with snakes and draped with a billowing scarf, the stern face with three round eyes and mouth agape baring fangs, wearing an elaborate headdress surmounted by a vajra

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 68424

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996-2005, on loan.
The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, October-December 1999.
Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell' Himalaya, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, June-September 2004.
Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005-2017, on loan.
Casting the Divine: Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2012-2013.

David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, fig. 22.
Franco Ricca, Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell’ Himalaya, Turin, 2004, fig. 35.

Good overall condition. With surface wear, accretion and patination throughout. Traces of polychrome to hair. Baseplate intact, likely not original.
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The practice of Kala Jambhala in Tibet originated with the second Sakya Tridzin or throne holder, Bari Lotsawa (born Rinchen Drakpa, 1040-1111), one of the most influential figures in Tibetan Buddhist history. In the late eleventh century, Bari Lotsawa made two extended journeys into India to train as a translator, during which time he received innumerable tantric transmissions and empowerments. He then mastered these practices and transmitted them to his disciples in Tibet, including the third Sakya Tridzin Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, the first of the Five Great Sakya Masters.

Kala Jambhala stands in fierce alidhasana atop a supine figure of Yellow Jambhala, who wears the bodhisattva jewellery and raiment and holds a jewel in the raised right hand. The ferocious, ithyphallic deity stares intently, his three eyes bulging, and his fangs bared. Compare the use of copper inlay; the sash and raised arm of Yellow Jambhala used as a support; and the wide, downturned single row of lotus petals on the base surmounted by a single row of beaded pearls with another thirteenth or fourteenth century ungilt bronze figure of Kala Jambhala also from the Nyingjei Lam Collection, see lot 3109; as well as Pratapaditya Pal, Divine Images, Human Visions, Ottawa, 1997, p. 73.