The silk garland decorated with gold thread and applied with eleven large skulls and asura heads, each detailed with a ferocious expression, wide grinning mouth, and flanked by comically large, flat ears, terminating in a phallic tassel applied with beads and fringes.
Provenance: From the collection of an artist and university professor in Vienna.
Condition: Overall good condition with expected wear, traces of use, and manufacturing irregularities. The silk with minor losses and loose threads, the bronze with small nicks and light scratches here and there. Remnants of ritual paint.
Weight: 1.9 kg
Dimensions: Length 92 cm (incl. tassel)
A mundamala, also called kapalamala or rundamala, is a garland of the severed heads and skulls of demons found in both Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist iconography. In Hinduism, the mundamala is a characteristic of fearsome aspects of the Hindu Divine Mother and the god Shiva; while in Buddhism, it is worn by wrathful deities of Tibetan Buddhism.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related mundamala in the Museum of Buddhist Art Nongprue, Thailand.
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