A PARCEL-GILT SILVER REPOUSSÉ GAU DEPICTING VAJRABHAIRAVA, BHUTAN, 18TH-19TH CENTURY

Finely chased and embossed with the central figure of Vajrabhairava standing atop his bull mount as it tramples a prostrate figure atop a beaded lotus pedestal, an attendant with a trident lifting a blood-filled kapala to the wrathful deity’s open mouth with outstretched tongue, wearing a garland of skulls, a skull tiara topped by a vajra, and ornate jewelry, holding a skeleton club and a lasso, backed by a flaming aureole.

The copper back-plate engraved with a double vajra. The interior lined with an inscribed red cloth. Each side with two rectangular cord loops for suspension.

Provenance: From a German private collection of Himalayan art.
Condition: Very good condition with expected wear, traces of use, manufacturing flaws, small dents, and expected wear and losses to the contents within.

Weight: 934 g (incl. contents)
Dimensions: Size 17 x 14.9 x 4.6 cm

The sacred contents of the reliquary comprise:

1. A wax figure of Vajrabhairava standing on his bull mount.
2. A wax figure of Avalokiteshvara.
3. Two sealed repositories of sacred texts (both seals unbroken).
4. Two cloths painted and inscribed with Buddhist scriptures.
5. A peacock feather tied at the end with a miniature scroll inscribed with mantras in minutely rendered Tibetan script.
6. And four fragments of wood, textile, bone, and mixed metal.

Vajrabhairava is the wrathful form of Manjushri and a revered meditational deity in the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the dominant religious power in Tibet in the seventeenth century. Vajrabhairava also became a prominent Buddhist icon in China under the Qing emperors, who maintained direct links with the dignitaries of the Gelugpa sect, including the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. He is worshipped for frightening away egotism and selfishness – the root of suffering – and in this true form reveals the awesome and terrifying nature of enlightenment. He is both a guardian deity and the destroyer of death who presides over the great tantras of the highest yoga in Tibetan Buddhism.

Gau comprise a class of objects from reliquary boxes to amulets. The Tibetans make a distinction between rten (amulets) and gau (reliquary boxes), based on the kind of contents placed in each container. A rten usually contains a rolled paper of invocation while a gau contains depictions of Buddhist deities in the form of a metal image or a stamped clay plaque provided by a lama.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related parcel-gilt silver repoussé gau, dated late 18^th-early 19^th century, at Michael Backman Ltd., London, inventory number 4570. See other Bhutanese gaus in the Barbara and David Kipper Collection, illustrated by Madhuvanti Ghose (ed.), Vanishing Beauty, Art Institute of Chicago, 2016, p. 55. A gau of Avalokiteshvara with similar parcel gilt face is in the Mengdiexuan Collection, illustrated by Xu Xiaodong (ed.), Jewels of Transcendence, Hong Kong, 2018, p. 73, no. 3.