About the Work

This striking ritual object is cast with exceptional detail and depicts three identical faces of the tantric Buddhist deity Vajrakila. He takes the wrathful form of the bodhisattva, Vajrasattva, and aids the devotee in removing obstacles in their path to enlightenment. The heads were originally attached to a triple-faceted blade, forming a monumental phurba dagger.

Phurba translates to 'peg, pin, or nail' and functions as a spiritually charged weapon in tantric Buddhist rituals to expel demonic forces.

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Provenance

Mr. B. M. Meddens, Haarlem/Bentveld, ca. 1960 – late 1970s (Mr. B. M. Meddens was a well-known collector of Asian art, collecting from the 1950s. Meddens was a restorer for the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and a member of the Koninklijke Vereniging van Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst).
J. Polak, Amsterdam, late 1970s – 1990.
Private collection, Germany, 1991 – 2021.

Literature

PUBLISHED
H. Kreijger, Godenbeelden uit Tibet: Lamaïstische kunst uit Nederlands particulier bezit, Antwerp, 1989, p.119 and back cover.
J.E. van Lohuizen-De Leeuw, Some Buddhist Sculptures and Indian Paintings, exh. cat. Jaap Polak, The Hague, 1981, no.4, p.10-11.
Christie’s, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, New York, 3 October 1990, lot 173.
RELATED LITERATURE E. Schlagintweit, Buddhism in Tibet Illustrated by Literary Documents and Objects of Religious Worship, vol. 2, Leipzig, 1863.
M. Georgette,‘“The "Phurbu”: The Use and Symbolism of the Tibetan Magic Dagger’, in History of Religions, 6, no. 3, 1967, pp.236-53.
A. Neven, Lamaistic Art, exh. cat. Société Générale de Banque, Brussels, 1975, p.57.
J. Huntington, The Phurba, Tibetan Ritual Daggers, Ascona, 1975.
J. C. Watt and D. Leidy. Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth- century China. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005, p. 11.
J. Lee-Kalisch (ed.), Tibet: Klöster Öffnen Ihre Schatzkammern, exh. cat. Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 2007, no.71, pp.394-395.
N. Bazin (et. al), Népal: art de la vallée de Kathmandou, exh. cat. Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet, Paris, 2021, no.83, p.213.