A PARCEL GILT SILVER REPOUSSÉ GAU OF PADMASAMBHAVABHUTAN, CIRCA 19TH CENTURY
With a copper backplate incised with a visvavajra, the interior lined with red cloth and containing a miniature metal sculpture of Jambhala and a small, bound and sealed, consecrated parcel.
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16731
9.8 cm (3 7/8 in.) high注脚This finely hammered and chased amulet box (gau) is replete with complex imagery. The bottom edge has a visasvajra sprouting lotus sprays that bifurcate up the side panels and blossom the eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism (ashtamangala). The front face has a central smiling figure of Padmasambhava joined by his two wives, his eight other manifestations, and Buddha at the apex. Padmasambhava is considered by his followers to be a 'second Buddha'. He is especially revered in Bhutan, where this gau likely originated from given its subject and stylistic treatment of the lotus pedestal. See other Bhutanese gaus in the Barbara and David Kipper Collection (Ghose (ed.), Vanishing Beauty, Chicago, 2016, p.55). A gau of Avalokitesvara with similar parcel gilt face is in the Mengdiexuan Collection (Xu (ed.), Jewels of Transcendence, Hong Kong, 2018, p.73, no.37).


局部鎏金銀質錘鍱蓮花生大士嘎烏盒
不丹，約十九世紀
銅質背板上鏨刻十字金剛杵紋，盒內墊紅綢，內包一小型財神像與一捆帶蠟封章的裝藏包。
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網16731號
高9.8釐米（3 7/8英吋）

15,000-25,000港幣

這件精美的嘎烏盒以錘鍱與鏨刻工藝製作而成，圖案複雜而細緻。下方十字金剛杵生出蓮枝，蔓延至盒身兩側並結出如意八寶。盒蓋中央端坐慈眉善目的蓮花生大士，其二妻居其左右，四周環繞蓮師之八種化現，佛陀居頂。蓮師之弟子將其尊為「第二佛陀」，在不丹國尤受尊崇。據題材與蓮瓣風格判斷，此嘎烏盒或出於不丹。參考Barbara與David Kipper收藏中的若干不丹嘎烏盒（Ghose編，《Vanishing Beauty》，芝加哥，2016年，頁55）。夢蝶軒收藏中一件觀音菩薩嘎烏盒亦以相似手法對中央人物面部施鎏金（許曉東編，《Jewels of Transcendence》，香港，2018年，頁73，編號37）。