Vajrabhairava and His Consort Vajra Vetali

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Vajrabhairava and His Consort Vajra Vetali

Central Tibet, a Gelukpa Monastery, 17th century
Sculpture
Brass with cold gold paste and paint
9 1/2 x 7 x 3 3/4 in. (24.13 x 17.78 x 9.52 cm)
Gift of Christian Humann (M.76.143)
South and Southeast Asian Art
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

...
Vajrabhairava (Adamantine Anger), also known as Yamantaka (Conqueror of Death), is the wrathful manifestation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. He is a meditational deity (yidam) in the Anuttara Yoga classification of Tantric Vajrayana Buddhism, which was practiced in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Tsongkhapa (1357–1419). His consort is Vajra Vetali (Adamantine Zombie). Vajrabhairava is represented in multiple iconographic forms. Here, he has a flaming nimbus and nine heads, eight of which are fierce. The primary head is a buffalo symbolic of Vajrabhairava's role as the destoyer of death. His uppermost placid head is Manjushri. He has thirty-four arms holding assorted weapons and attributes. His principal and hold a flaying knife (kartrika) and a skullcup (kapala). He holds an elephant skin draped behind him. The practitioner must visualize each ritual object and its specific Tantric symbolism. He has sixteen legs, stands in the militant posture (alidha asana), and is trampling various gods, humans, animals, and birds. Vajrabhairava embraces Vajra Vetali in the "father-mother" (yab-yum) sexual posture. She has one head and two arms holding a thunderbolt (vajra) in her right hand and a skullcup in her left hand. The complex image is cast in sixteen pieces and is a tour de force of Tibetan metalworking. See also M.77.19.8, M.79.243.1-.3, and a comparable 18th-century brass sculpture in the British Museum, London (1880.157).
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Bibliography

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  • Little, Stephen, Tushara Bindu Gude, Karina Romero Blanco, Silvia Seligson, Marco Antonio Karam. Las Huellas de Buda. Ciudad de México : Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2018.
  • Little, Stephen, and Tushara Bindu Gude. Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art across Asia. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2025.
  • Fisher, Robert E. Mystics and Mandalas: Bronzes and Paintings of Tibet and Nepal. Redlands, CA:  University of Redlands, 1974.
  • Pal, Pratapaditya.  Art of Tibet.  Los Angeles; Berkeley, CA:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art; University of California Press, 1983.
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  • Reedy, Chandra L.  Himalayan Bronzes:  Technology, Style and Choices.  Newark:  University of Delaware Press, 1997.
  • Fisher, Robert E.  Art of Tibet.  London:  Thames and Hudson, 1997.
  • Maxwell, Gail.  Visual Art for Meditation:  Resource Book.  Los Angeles: Museum Associates/Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005.
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