TIBET, Densatil - XVIe siècle Lot n° 33

● TIBET, DENSATIL - 16th century A Densatil gilt-bronze frieze with two Apsara Gilded bronze plaque representing two apsara standing on lotuses, surrounded by stems adorned with stylised scrolls, adorned with large earrings and crowns with stylised flower motifs, the lower part holding a lotus bud. (Missing hands of one). Height 32 cm. To bid on this lot a deposit is required A man is at the origin of the foundation of the monastery of Densatil: Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (1110 -1170). A monk, he studied in different regions of Tibet, including with a disciple of the famous Milarepa, before being ordained. He first settled in Tsalgang monastery and then went to meditate alone in a remote region. He chose the Phagmodru site, and then became known as Phagmo drupa, "Phagmodru's site". Students gradually joined him, forming a community in the caves around him, then Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo moved to a hut, from where he gave his teaching. An excellent teacher, his influence and community grew throughout his life. On the 25th of the 7th Tibetan month of 1170, he died, and his remains were then placed in a stupa. In 1198, the construction of a permanent monastery on the site of the former Phagmo Drupa hut was decided: it was the birth of Densatil. His plan is conceived as a mandala, and little by little other stupa are being raised to preserve the relics of the founding abbots. These stupa called tashi gomang are designed according to a complex iconography and richly decorated with effigies of deities, plaques and pillars in gilded bronze defending access to the relics and paying tribute to the abbots. The stupa were erected and enriched during the successive centuries: Densatil gradually lost its influence, but continued to receive support during the successive centuries and kept its magnificence. Completely destroyed during the Chinese cultural revolution, the monastery is no longer. However, his iconography and the arrangement of statues and plaques on the stupa tashi gomang have been received by several traveling scholars. Chokyi Gyatso (1880 - 1923) thus went to Densatil and made a precise iconographic description of it. Two foreign explorers then travelled to Densatil. Sarat Chandra Das (1849-1917), an Indian professor and Tibetologist, spent more than a year in Tibet from 1879, in order to translate texts and collect information on Tibetan Buddhism. He went to Densatil and described it in his diary: "In the village of Jong we started climbing the steep hill at the top of which was the old Densa-til lamasery, the building nestled in the hollow of the scowl rocks on which some fir trees and junipers grow here and there. I have noticed here eighteen beautiful chorten (stupa) of gold and silver, the most beautiful specimens of such metalwork that I have ever seen... Of all the moansteres in Tibet, this is perhaps the richest in religious treasures." Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984), an Italian linguist, tibetologist and explorer, documented and photographed Tibet for more than twenty years, and visited it eight times. On the 1948 expedition, he hired the photographer Pietro Francesco Mele to go to Densatil. He published his notes on Densatil, as well as the photographs, in his 1950 book, A Lhasa e oltre (towards Lhasa and beyond): "Under the porch of the central temple stood immense chorten containing the relics of the abbots and princes of this lineage.......] These were huge gilded bronze monuments built by Nepalese craftsmen, perhaps with the help of very skilled local workers: the princes of Tsetang had gathered the best architects and sculptors, and their successors had done their best to achieve the same standards... These chortens were called Kumbums, or one hundred thousand statues, because the architectural lines of these constructions were covered by a set of statues and reliefs whose wealth knew no limits. All the Olympus of the Mahayana seemed to have gathered on these constructions" The descriptions and photographs of the successive explorers allow us to reconstruct the iconography of the stupa tashi gomang: several successive registers went up to the relics. One of the registers, the fifth, was dedicated to the goddesses as offerings. They represented offerings of form, taste, touch, spirit, music, dance, song, flowers, light, perfume and incense. The iconography of the little goddesses depicted in front, and in a two-armed form, was taken from the yoginisamcara tantra. Few bronzes remained after the destruction of the monastery, but this plaque can be compared to several other pieces, particularly in the scrolls surrounding the goddesses as offerings. The two plaques kept at the Musée Guimet (inv. no. MA6262) representing the goddesses in a wiggle offering, in their four-armed form. At the back of each of their heads, a mandorla evokes both the radiance and a stylized plant from which small leaves spring. The same motif can be found on plaqu