This
dark bronze depicts Tsong Khapa riding an elephant (strength,
wisdom, prudence) with his hands in teaching mudra. He is
wearing the traditional pandita hat worn by Buddhist scholars
in India and is dressed in the robes of a Tibetan monk. Lotus
flowers rise from their stems in his hands to the level of
his shoulders, where they support a sword and a book, symbolizing
the penetrating power of wisdom and identifying Tsong Khapa
as a manifestation of Manjushri, whose attributes are also
the sword and book. Some representations of Tsong Khapa realistically
emphasize his actual features, such as his long eyebrows and
hooked nose; this bronze however is an idealized portrait
that nevertheless retains Tsong Khapa’s bright and alert countenance.
Recognized at the age of three as a reincarnated Boddhisattva,
he went to central Tibet at seventeen and became one of Tibet’s
greatest scholar/philosophers, whose influence was immeasurable,
extending even to China and Mongolia. The Gelugpa sect, which
became the most powerful Buddhist sect in Tibet and surrounding
countries, was founded by Tsong Khapa, who is now revered
as a Buddha.
This
excellent statue is firmly modeled and well detailed; the
surface bears a handsome patina of dark brown with green crystallization
forming.
