Fire-gilded bronze. Tibet, presumably 18th / 19th cent.
Very well-worked bronze sculpture of a Dakini in motion, with very effectively painted facial features and a third eye. Dakini are exclusively female, almost or entirely naked and are goddesses who play a role in the healing process. This vajravahari stands in capasthana on one leg on top of a laying human body. She is wearing a rich and bejwelled skull chain, a crown likewise with skulls and various decorative chains. In one hand she is holding a kartr hack knife and the raktakapala skull up in the other. A swine’s head protrudes from her blazing hair. The upper end of the khatvanga rod is missing. The oval lotus pedestal is sturdy, like the laying body cast separately and also holds a vishvavajra.HEIGHT (WITHOUT POLE) 30,5 CM
From an Austrian private collection