A small inscribed silver figure of Sangye Nyenpa, Tibet, 16th century

A small inscribed silver figure of Sangye Nyenpa
Tibet, 16th century
西藏 十六世紀 銀桑傑年巴像

the base plate and reverse of the base inscribed 'Homage to Sangye Nyenpa'
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13823.
HAR13823編號

Height 2½ in., 6.8 cm

Condition Report:
Good condition.

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Catalogue Note:
This small intricately cast portrait lama depicts Sangye Nyenpa, seated in meditation posture on a double lotus base, depicted in teaching posture with the right hand raised in vitarka mudra and the left hand in varada mudra.

The precision of the modeling is superb, with elaborate folding robes decorated with intricate floral motifs. The sculpture is preserved in exceptionally good condition, complete with its original base plate, finely engraved with a visvavajra. Silver sculpture in Tibetan antiquity was created at great expense and as such, was significantly less common than casting in bronze. Based on published examples of Tibetan silver sculpture in private collections and public collections, silver appears to have been a favored medium of the Karmapa and Shamarpa lineages.

The first Sanggye Nyenpa’s biography is outlined and translated by Adele Tomlin on https://treasuryoflives.org, from where the quotations in this note are taken. The First Sangye Nyenpa Lama, Tashi Peljor (1457-1519) was a devotee of the 7th Karmapa Lama who then became the principle teacher of the 8th Karmapa when he reached the age of 10. It is said that they spent the entire day together from the moment the sun rose until the evening, reading transmissions, explanations and experiential instructions. In his Autobiography on Namto Mountain, the Eighth Karmapa wrote:

'Then I touched the feet of Sanggye Nyenpa, mahāsiddha, the nirmāṇakāya of Jowo Smṛtijñānakīrti, I took the novice vows, he gave me the empowerments and blessings of the Kriya tantras, including the Trisamayavyūha, the blessings and empowerments of the Carya tantras, including Vajrapāṇi; the blessings and empowerments of the Yoga tantras including Vajra Dhatveśvari; the blessings and empowerments of the Anuttarayoga tantras, including Kālacakra; and in particular, the blessings of Dzogchen tantras. In brief, he gave me all the empowerments of the Nyingma and Sarma transmissions. I received many instructions of what are known as the Nine Profound Cycles of Instructions and so forth. I held him to be our highest object for accumulation and purification, and day and night, always holding him in my mind, I took the four empowerments through the vajra yoga, never missing a day'.

A thangka depicting Sangye Nyenpa alongside the Eighth Karmapa (fig.1) in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, was included in the exhibition Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 2010, fig. 4.15. For a larger silver portrait figure of Mikyo Dorje, the Eighth Karmapa, formerly in the Nyingjei Lam collection and now in the Rubin Museum of Art, (acc. no. C2019.2.1.), see David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, pl. 48. Mikyo Dorje was an accomplished artist and sculptor. It is also recorded that he commissioned a silver statue of Sanggye Nyenpa after his death, which survives and is now enshrined at Tsurphu Monastery.

The inscription also contains a numeral after 'Homage to Sangye Nyenpa'. This appears to be a reference to the quality of the silver used by the artisan.