Karma Pakshi (1206-1283) was the Second Karmapa (The One Who Performs the Activities of the Buddha), the supreme leader of the Karma Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism. He was also the preceptor of Möngke Khan of the Mongol Empire (r. 1251–1259). He was a child prodigy and effortlessly mastered the Buddhist teaching and meditative practices by the age of ten. He is credited with restoring monasteries founded by the First Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa (1110–1193).
Karma Pakshi wears a distinctive black ceremonial hat known as the Vajra Crown, which is traditionally said to have been woven from the black hairs of millions of mystical dakinis (sky-goers) and bestowed upon the Karmapa in recognition of his spiritual realization. He has a goatee unique to Karma Pakshi, wears a patchwork robe, and holds both hands extended across the knees. He is seated in the meditation posture (padma asana) on a lotus base. The inscription on the back of the base reads, Salutation to lord the second Karma Pakshi.
The image was sealed with a copper baseplate incised with a double thunderbolt (vishva vajra). Inside were a wide variety of material, including rolls of cloth and paper with writing, soil, beads of semiprecious gemstones, seeds, what appear to be ashes, and an ivory roundel carved with the Auspicious Symbol of the Endless Knot of Life (Sanskrit: Shrivatsa; Tibetan: pelbeu).
Pratapaditya Pal hypothesizes that the LACMA image was commissioned as the memorial of a lama who may have been regarded as a reincarnation of the Second Karmapa (Pal 1990, p. 287, no. S47).
See Himalayan Art Resources, no. 85788, https://www.himalayanart.org/items/85788