STATUETTE DE VAJRAVARAHI EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRE DORÉTIBET CENTRAL, MONASTÈRE DE DENSATIL, XVE SIÈCLETibetan letter inscribed on the reverse of the foot and base:'ga'.Himalayan Art Resources item no. 481337.1 cm (14 5/8 in.) highProvenance: A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAJRAVARAHICENTRAL TIBET, DENSATIL MONASTERY, 15TH CENTURY藏中 丹薩替 十五世紀 銅鎏金金剛亥母像Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sThis gilt copper sculpture of Vajravarahi was once placed on the upper tier of a massive reliquarymemorating an important Buddhist teacher. It closely resembles several other surviving examples of the same genre with some variation in style and period, most dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. The first massive reliquary of this type was created at Drigung monastery in 1208. The founder of Drigung monastery, Jigten Gonpo (1143-1217), sought to suitably house the remains of his recently deceased and beloved teacher, Phagmodrupa (1110-70), inside a magnificent reliquary. He envisioned a monumental stupa in a design generally known astashi gomang, meaning, 'Many Doors of Auspiciousness'. The first model hemissioned at Drigung became the foundation for a tradition of creating massivetashi gomang monuments, replete with thousands of images, at Drigung monastery and elsewhere in Tibet (Czaja and Proser (eds.)Golden Visions of Densatil, 2014, pp. 34 & 42).Eight such monuments were created at Densatil monastery between the late 13th century to the first half of the 15th century. A few photographs of these remarkable structures at Densatil were taken in 1948 by Italian photographer Pietro Francesco Mele, which provides a window into their former glory. These reliquaries were five meters in height, forming a three-dimensional mandala, arranged in recessed tiers with the reliquary containing the deceased's remains on the highest tier. Encrusted with gems, thetashi gomang stupa has been described as 'a huge golden mountain' (ibid, p. 54).This type of reliquary tradition continued at Drigung monastery into the 17th century. A recent study has argued that similar c. 13th century Vajravarahi sculptures were associated with atashi Gomang stupa at Drigung or elsewhere, and an example in the Rietberg Museum exhibits yet another style variation (see Weldon, 'Defining the Style of A Group of 13th Century Tibetan Gilt Copper Statues', , 13 September 2018, fig. 6; Uhlig,On the Path to Enlightenment, no. 109, pp. 164-5). The sculptural style of the present Vajravarahi differs from all the others, suggesting that the sculpture was either made for a different reliquary at one of the known sites, or ites from an unknown site that also must have createdtashi gomang reliquaries for their deceased masters. All the Vajravarahi figures discussed range from about 30-40 centimeters in height. Olaf Czaja's study shows that such sculptures were placed on the uppermost tier of the reliquary platform at