A34 Kneeling Bodhisattva, China

A34. Kneeling Bodhisattva, China, Ching.

This rare Tibeto-Chinese sculpture of a Bodhisattva kneeling on both knees is heavily cast. He wears only a scarf on his upper body while his lower body is clothed in a long dhoti with engraved borders. He is adorned with a five leaf crown, necklaces, bracelets, armlets earrings and anklets usually associated with Bodhisattvas. Both hands are in a gift giving position.

An example of an earlier Ming Bodhisattva kneeling on one knee is illustrated in von Schroeder, “Indo –Tibetan Bronzes”, 1981, page 525, figures 148C and 148D was born in Amdo in Eastern Tibet. He was brought up as a monk and moved to Lhasa when he was sixteen years old. He was a brilliant scholar and went on to found the Gelukpa or Yellow hat school of Tibetan Buddhism. This became the dominant sect in Tibet and the Dalai Lamas are the heads of this school.