Vajravarahi Copper alloy with semi-precious stones and polychrome Tibet

The dancing dakini poised on the toes of her left foot with right leg raised, holding the kartrika up in her right hand and a kapala in her left, naked but for bone jewelry, a skull tiara, a necklace of pendant jewels and a heavy garland of severed heads hung on twisted rope, a savage expression fixed on the painted face, hair painted orange and a sow's head emerging from the back of the head, the figure cast in a lustrous alloy with fine patina.

Galierie Koller Zürich, 1986

This haunting Tibetan sculpture of Vajravarahi embodies the intensity of medieval eastern Indian tantrism that was the spiritual inspiration for many Tibetans from the eleventh century onwards. The dakini instructs her initiates with a commanding scowl, sharp fangs emerging from the corners of her mouth. Vajravarahi embodies both passion and compassion, and represents the essence of Wisdom, the female prajna, and with her partner Chakrasamvara they form the Circle of Bliss, the ultimate union of Wisdom and Compassion. A chilling dichotomy pervades the sculpture, with freshly severed human heads hanging from the shoulders while precious jewels hang from her slender neck, the voluptuous female form at odds with the savagely bared fangs and steely gaze. The sculpture, cast in a lustrous copper alloy inset with colourful semi-precious stones, was inspired by the bronzes of Pala India of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, from where the cult of the deity herself originates.  Compare the posture and details such as the severed heads hung on twisted rope with a twelfth century Indian bronze Vajradaka, see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, p. 295, figs. 98E-F, and for gem-set Pala period copper alloy sculpture, cf. a series of eleventh or twelfth century Tathagatas, see ibid, pp. 250-259, pls. 78-82.