A GILT-LACQUERED ZITAN FIGURE OF PHAKPA LOKESHVARA TIBET, 12TH – 15TH CENTURY |

The sculpture itself is in overall good condition, with minor bruising and general surface wear. As visible in the catalogue photos, there is rubbing to the gilded decoration, especially the visvajra motif on the underside.
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This finely carved figure is an early and well preserved copy of one of the most revered sculptures in Tibetan Buddhism, the Phagpa Lokeshvara, traditionally believed to have been created in the 7th century, and located in the Phagpa Lhakhang of the Potala Palace, Lhasa. It is also related to another larger zitan figure of Avalokiteshvara in the Potala Palace, with the same iconography and style of carving, and similarly decorated with gilt-lacquered floral motifs on the robe, illustrated in Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, vol. II, pp. 824-5, pl. 196C.