This
wildly expressive statue, only inches in height, possesses a furious and potent
energy compacted into its small mass. A virile, authentic Tibetan yidam, this
Vajrapani was no doubt an important presence in a Buddhist altar. Along with the
very detailed and symbolically extensive rendering, the work is sealed at the
bottom, indicating that a ceremony was held calling Vajrapani into the statue,
after which it was consecrated and engraved with the double vajra.
Vajrapani,
holder of the thunderbolt scepter symbolizing the absolute transforming power
of enlightenment, is one of the earliest bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism. He
crushes beneath his feet all delusion, represented by the preta, or hungry ghost,
stretched out under him. He wears a garland of freshly severed heads, a serpent
necklace and a loincloth made from the skin of a tiger; bone necklaces, armbands
and anklets representing the paramitas of charity, morality and action. The five-skull
crown with each of the five skulls surmounted by a gold-encased jewel represents
the “death” of the five poisons and the five aggregates of the personality. Vajrapani’s
blue-black hair standing on end accentuates the wrathful expression of his knitted
brows beneath the third eye. Blood streams from the corners of his mouth, visible
as tiny chisel marks on the surface. The statue is supported by a lotus base,
sculpted in a band of delicate radiating petals. --RW
