1-234-586 - The Museum of East Asian Art/Heritage Images

Gilt bronze Sakya Lama, Tibet, 17th century. A gilt brass portrait figure of a lama, probably Sonam Gyantsen. The head is covered with a full-bottomed wig-shaped hat, his robe is elaborately etched and pitted with flowers and cash-type circles. His right arm is bare and his hands are raised in front of his chest in the teaching gesture (dharmachakra mudra). The figure is seated crossed-legged with soles up on a lotus plinth which extends all the way round. The well-formed fat petals are turned up in the upper section of the plinth and turned down in the lower section.