A magnificent gilt-bronze inscribed figure of Padmapani Lokeshvara18th century
The deity cast with elegantly swaying body standing on a lotus pedestal, her left hand raised in varada mudra holding the stem of a lotus blossom resting on her shoulder and her right in kartari mudra, adorned with a tall diadem and beaded jewellery, wearing a long flowing robe with finely incised floral hems and a billowing scarf around the arms trailing downwards, the face with almond-shaped eyes beneath arched brows in contemplative expression, the base with an inscription. 27.4cm (10 3/4in) high.注脚十八世紀 銅鎏金觀自在菩薩像

Himalayan Art Resources item no.16774
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網16774號

Provenance:
Henry Harrison Getty (1838-1919), by repute
Alice Getty (d.1946), by repute
Courtenay Morgan, Viscount Tredegar (1867-1934), by repute
Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar (1893-1949), by repute
Professor and Mrs Bellerby, by repute
Mark Dineley (1901-1975)
Peter Dineley (1938-2018), and thence by descent

Noted in the handwritten family 'A Catalogue of the Dineley Collection of Tibetiana and Associated Buddhistic Objects', early 1960s, p.125.

來源：
傳亨利·哈里遜·蓋蒂舊藏（1838-1919年）
傳愛麗絲·蓋蒂舊藏（卒於1946年）
傳卓德嘉子爵考特尼·摩根舊藏（1867-1934年）
傳特里迪格子爵二世艾文·摩根舊藏（1893-1949年）
傳貝勒比教授及夫人舊藏
馬克·戴尼利舊藏（1901-1975年）
彼得·戴尼利舊藏（1938-2018年），並由家族繼承

記載於戴尼利家族手稿《戴尼利家族的西藏州和相關的佛教物品收藏目錄》'A Catalogue of the Dineley Collection of Tibetiana and Associated Buddhistic Objects'，1960年代初，頁125。

The inscription reads 'Om ah spyan ras gzigs la na mo hum', which may be translated as 'May I pay homage to the Lord Cherezig (Avalokitesvara)'.

The present figure depicting the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in the Padmapani form is notable for the crisp and elegant casting, displayed in the sinuous graceful form of the body, with the right hip gently thrust sideways on a lotus base in tribhanga, as well as the meticulous attention to detail devoted to the elaborate jewellery and the incised hem of the thin dhoti.

Padmapani Lokeshvara, 'The Lord of the World Holding the Lotus', is the spiritual son of the Transcendental Buddha Amitabha. He achieved enlightenment eons ago but waits to dissolve forever into nirvana; he vowed to guide and liberate all sentient beings from the bondage of death and rebirth with all its inherent suffering. Therefore, he is considered the paradigm of perfected compassion, one of the key virtues a practitioner must develop towards enlightenment; see R.M.Davidson and C.Wedemeyer, 'The Tibetan Avalokiteshvara Cult in the Tenth Century: Evidence from the Dunhuang Manuscripts', in Tibetan Buddhist Literature and Praxis. Sam van Schaik (Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the IATS), Leiden, 2006, vol.4, pp.55-72. The lotus, symbol of Buddhism, that the bodhisattva carries gave him the popular epithet Lotus-bearer (Padmapani), and his right hand displays the varadamudra or the granting-wishes gesture.

The practice of portraying Padmapani in limber pose, with a bare torso, supple waist and thin lower garment, traces back to the golden age of Indian sculpture in the Gupta period (4th to 6th century AD), and was subsequently inherited by the Newari School of Tibet which added exaggerated narrow waist and swollen thighs during the 13th century.

Compare with a related gilt-bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara, Qing dynasty (1650-1700), illustrated by U.von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p.541, pl.152F.

菩薩頭戴寶冠，髮梳葫蘆髻，頂戴寶光，髮分兩肩，左右手皆持蓮莖，蓮花歇於肩上。胸部和腰部攏瓔珞，下身著兩層短裳，臂挽哈達，垂於腿側，尾角上揚，如有風動，赤足立於單層覆蓮座，座上下緣起連珠紋一周，封底鏨刻藏文咒語一行，文曰：「ༀ་ཨཱཿསྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ལན་མོ་ཧཱུྃ」，大意為「禮敬南無觀世音」。

此件菩薩造像鑄造精美，身姿曼妙，即「三道彎」，身著窄腳長褲，為印度式禮服多提（Dhoti），通體鎏金，首飾嵌以寶石，金彩灼灼，寶氣煥然。

觀自在菩薩在尼泊爾和西藏造像中常手持蓮花，代表本來清淨之德，以修行成就，故顯佛智。手施予願印，表普華眾生，相關探討可參見R.M.Davidson及C.Wedemeyer撰，《The Tibetan Avalokitesvara Cult in the Tenth Century: Evidence from the Dunhuang Manuscripts'》，載於《Tibetan Buddhist Literature and Praxis. Sam van Schaik (Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the IATS)》， 萊登，2006年，卷4，頁55-72。

其細腰，薄衫，曼妙的身形可以追溯到古印度造像的黃金時期－笈多王朝（Gupta Empire）（319年－550年），由尼泊爾工匠傳至西藏，後來腰收更細，腿部更為豐滿。參考一件清代銅鎏金觀音像，見馮·施羅德著，《Indo-Tibetan Bronzes》，香港，1981年，頁541，圖版152F。