AN IRON STUPA


INDIA OR TIBET, 11TH CENTURY OR LATERHimalayan Art Resources item no.61674 16 cm (6 1/4 in.) high
|印度或西藏 十一世紀 鐵質佛塔 For the first five centuries, Buddha's followers did not represent him in human form. Rather they emphasized his supramundane nature and celebrated its lingering presence in the world. Stupas are among the most important and lasting of these 'aniconic' representations. Stupas can be small reliquaries, like the present, charged with sacred contents, or large monuments for pilgrimage believed to house important relics - in some cases still-vivified elements of Shakyamuni's mortal body. Precedent for its sun-and-moon finial can be found in Indian stupas, as seen in a famous 8th-century Gilgit shrine of Crowned Buddha in the Rockefeller Collection at Asia Society (1979.044).ProvenanceToovey's Auction, UK, 2017