Padmasambhava Yab Yum – Guru Rinpoche Statue with Filigree

Padmasambhava Yab Yum statue with filigree and set colored stones. Known in Tibetan Buddhism as Guru Rinpoche, he is depicted with his consort in embrace.

As a central figure of tantric Buddhism, he was invited to Tibet in the 8th century, where he played a key role in transmitting the Buddhist teachings.

Padmasambhava is seated on a lotus base with evenly bent legs, his consort is seated facing him on his lap. In his right hand he holds the vajra, while his left hand carries a skull cup. The consort holds a kartika, curved knife, in her right hand and a skull cup in her left. The tantric staff, khatvanga, rests against Padmasambhava’s left side. Both figures wear the crown and the full ornaments of a bodhisattva. Padmasambhava is fully dressed in a royal robe, while his consort is shown wearing only her ornaments.

His robe and the lotus pedestal are worked in filigree. Fine wires are shaped into spiral forms and filled with small arched elements, assembled into an ornamental pattern. Set stones are integrated into the filigree. The ornamentation lends Padmasambhava’s robe a brocade-like appearance.

The sculpture follows Vajrayana visual traditions of the Kathmandu Valley, in which ritual identity, gesture, and ornament form a coherent iconographic unity.

Padmasambhava

statue from copper, decorated with filigree, gold- and silver-plated, set with colored stones. The figure is patinated. The faces are set in gold. Handcrafted in Nepal.

• Height: 8" / 22 cm
• Width: 6,5" / 17 cm
• Depth: 5" / 12 cm
• Weight: 2,358 g

NOTE
The face painting is a cold-gold application and water-soluble.