Lot 58A
Central Asian, Tibet, ca. 19th century CE. A fine silver-lined example of a kapala, made from the top of a human skull, ringed with repousse symbols of deer and flowers. On each of the four sides are three inlaid semi-precious stones, two turquoise and one red coral, making for a total of twelve stones. Kapala are ritual cups or bowls fashioned from human and animal skulls, used in both Hinduism and Tantric (Vajrayana) Buddhism. The translation of kapala in Sanskrit is skull. Many kapala are decorated with precious metals, jewels, and elaborate carving to the bone surface, done by softening the bone in water and then cutting with a sharp tool. Size: 4.55" W x 7.4" H (11.6 cm x 18.8 cm), custom stand not included.
These beautiful objects often are made from skulls stripped of their flesh in sky burials, the compassionate Buddhist offering of the dead human form to local birds and other animals. Kapala and other ceremonial objects made from bone are part of the Tantric practice of reflection upon decay and the corruption of the corporeal form, as well as a desire to destroy the duality of attractiveness versus repulsion. Monks and yogis in this religion often meditate in graveyards or near the mountaintop sites of sky burials, surrounded by the unavoidable physicality of death. Although kapala may look to outside viewers like a disturbing fixation upon the grave with much of Vajrayana Buddhist iconography focused on blood, corpses, and bones - they are actually a deliberate attempt to destroy the karmic hindrances that might bind a soul to this earthly life and prevent it from achieving enlightenment.
Provenance: private Salter collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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#125676
- Condition: Patina on surface from age and handling.
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