佛像网

尺寸：38.7 × 16.51 × 8 cm
年代：14-15世纪
质地：铜鎏金
风格：西藏 尼藏
来源：美国Walters艺术博物馆
参阅：外部链接
鉴赏：

Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
Tibetan (Artist)
ca. 1400
gilded copper with traces of paint and semiprecious stones

菩萨是已证得觉悟者，但为助众生踏上解脱之道，选择推迟自身进入“涅槃”（止息存在与苦难的境界）。作为慈悲的化身，观世音菩萨尤其受到崇奉。常以持莲标识为特征的这位菩萨，亦被称为“帕德玛帕尼”，意为手持莲花者。这尊华贵的铜鎏金嵌宝造像，可能出自旅居西藏的尼泊尔工匠之手，因带有加德满都河谷尼瓦尔风格的鲜明印记。

造像完成后，需经住持或喇嘛举行系列开光仪轨，方能使圣像成为观音慈悲愿力的住持之所。通过“开眼”仪式赋予其灵性觉知，并在菩萨背部的矩形开口内装藏梳篦、织物、宝石、骨饰及贝叶经卷等圣物。

A bodhisattva is one who has attained enlightenment, but he or she postpones “nirvana” (the cessation of existence and suffering) in order to help others on their own paths toward this goal. As the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara is especially popular. Often recognized by his lotus attribute, he is also called Padmapani, the one with the lotus (“padma”) in his hand (“pani”). This sumptuous bronze sculpture, gilded and inlaid with semiprecious stones, may have been created in Tibet by migrant artists from Nepal, for it bears a stylistic resemblance to Newari works from the Kathmandu Valley.

After the artist made this sculpture, an abbot or a lama would have consecrated it through a series of ritual actions that allowed it to be a receptacle for Avalokiteshvara’s divine presence. An “eye-opening” ritual would animate the image and endow it with sense faculties. Offerings such as combs, textiles, gemstones, bone, and sacred scrolls of Buddhist teachings would have been inserted into the rectangular opening in Avalokiteshvara’s back.

来源:
Ian Alsop, New York and Santa Fe; purchased by John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, March 25 1997; given to Walters Art Museum, 2014.

展览:
2001-2003
Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong.