A rare bronze figure of Achala inset with turquoise, silver and copper Tibet or eastern India, 12th century

with right hand holding the khadga, the sword of wisdom, the left held in tarjani mudra, the threatening gesture, and with the pasha noose wrapped around the hand, a snake coiled around the body and entwined at the left shoulder, the krodha deity with fierce expression, a skull crown and snakes tying the flaming hair, wearing a necklace inset with turquoise, silver and copper, with turquoise earrings, and stepping in pratyalidha on a lotus pedestal with a recumbent Ganapati

Heavy accretion in crevices, most likely from butter lamp smoke. Traces of cold applied gold on the face, neck, ribbons of the headdress, and sword, traces of orange pigment on the hair and blue pigment on the entwined snakes. The sword tip bent downwards and the ribbons of the headdress bent slightly forwards. A small break on the true right bottom back of the base, the aureole missing at the back. Not consecrated.
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Achala's role in the Buddhist pantheon is to remove obstacles in the mind of a practitioner and protect the mind from negative forces. The deity appears in the Mahavairochana Sutra that was known in early eighth century India when it was translated into Chinese in 724 CE. A number of early Tibetan images of Achala have been recorded in Tibetan monastery collections that follow the iconographic pattern of the present statue, see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist sculptures in Tibet, pp. 1112-3, nos. 291A-E. For a full discussion on the role of Achala in the Buddhist pantheon, see Rob Linrothe, Ruthless Compassion, Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art, Boston, 1999.