A RARE POLYCHROME WOOD FIGURE OF CHITIPATI QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY |

superbly modelled in the form of the two protectors, each standing in ardhaparyankasana in mirror image of one another with the knees intertwined, all atop a conch and cowrie shell on a base bordered with pendent lappets, each skeletal protector rendered denuded of flesh and adorned with a billowing scarf, the skull portrayed with a third eye and surmounted by a five-leaf crown, further depicted holding in the hand a ritual implement

This extraordinary sculpture depicts the dancing Chitipati, fierce protectors of tantric practitioners in Vajrayana Buddhist imagery and ritual. In the Tantric context, the charnel ground is both a literal and metaphorical arena for Buddhist practice – a potent reminder of the impermanence of life; the mental constructs of aversion and impurity; and the craving for a human body and future rebirths.  Chitipati are associated with the eight great charnel grounds (astamahasmashana) of the Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini mandalas, and invoked as the skeletal protectors of Tantric practitioners. Chitipati are typically depicted completely denuded of flesh, with a third eye, wearing a five-leaf or five-skull crown, holding kinkara-danda (skeleton clubs) or other ritual implements aloft, and with knees intertwined. The ghouls and spirits of the charnel ground, including the kinkara, are governed by the Chitipati.   

A bronze figure of the dancing Chitipati in the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, iconographically close to the current lot, is illustrated in Barbara Lipton and Nima Dorjee Ragnubs, Treasures of Tibetan Art: Collections of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, New York, 1996, cat. no. 89. See also a large gilt-bronze figure, probably depicting an individual Chitipati, sold in these rooms, 3rd October 2017, lot 3144.