A bronze bell and vajra set, Ming dynasty, Yongle period

Christie's Hong Kong, 27th April 1997, lot 43.

Centerpieces of Tibetan Buddhist ritual practice, the vajra (Tib. dorje) and bell (Skt. ghanta, Tib. drilbu) are among the eight Buddhist implements used by monks in devotional worship. Representing method (upaya) and wisdom (prajna) respectively, the vajra and bell are combined in esoteric movements by a practitioner as a reminder of the inextricable link between the compassion of the bodhisattva and the awareness of life’s ultimate emptiness.

It is extremely rare to find a set of vajra and bell from the early fifteenth-century, let alone one where the bell is Yongle reign-marked. The intricacy of the construction of both ritual objects, especially the powerful articulation of the Buddha heads on the bell and the unity of the design across the two pieces, pays testimony to the consummate skill of the court craftsmen responsible for their production. In a minimalist style with richly detailed lotus flowers and lacking the makara heads commonly found at the base of the prongs on many examples, the set is a paragon of the delicate stylistic restraint seen in Yongle-period production. 

Sets of this age and quality are rarely published and almost never appear on the market. Compare a four-pronged set with an almost identical copper bell of Yongle mark and period gifted to the Qing court by the Dalai Lama, illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Hong Kong, 1992, pl. 131, together with a Xuande bell, ibid., pl. 132; another set, inlaid with hardstones and bearing a Yongle mark, is in the collection of the Potala Palace, illustrated in Treasures from Snow Mountains: Gems of Tibetan Cultural Relics, Shanghai, 2001, cat. no. 49. Compare also a closely related Xuande reign-marked bell from the same collection, sold in these rooms, 21st March 2024, lot 807.

For other fifteenth-century vajra and bells from the Imperial collection, compare an unmarked set formerly in the collection of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Dalai Lamas now in the Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Monarchy and its Buddhist Way: Tibetan-Buddhist Ritual Implements in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, pl. 8; and another given as tribute to the Chinese court by the Preceptor Changkya, illustrated in Lightness of Essence: Tibetan Buddhism Relics of the Palace Museum, Museu de Arte de Macau, Macau, 2003, cat. no. 107-5.