JPG - Current Image
PDF - Current Image & Data

Milarepa (Primary Title)

Unknown (Artist)

late 14th–early 15th century
Tibetan
Metalwork
Sculpture
Copper alloy with traces of color, paper prayer scrolls
South Asian Art
Central Tibet
Overall: 18 × 14 3/8 × 10 3/4 in. (45.72 × 36.51 × 27.31 cm)
2001.4a-d
G326 - South Asian Lounge

Tibet’s first native-born Buddhist adept and founder of the Kagyu order, Milarepa (possibly 1040–1123) preached through folk songs and poems, making complex Buddhist ideas accessible to ordinary people. He is instantly recognizable by his hand-to-ear gesture, referencing both his devotional singing and the oral transmission of tantric teachings. Like Padmasambhava, Virupa, and other Vajrayana Buddhist masters, he was something of a mystic wild man and possessed extraordinary powers. Seated on an antelope skin, he holds a human-skull cup. This sculpture once contained printed scrolls and other consecration items—including a symbolic spine of wood with an attached rock-crystal heart—intended to infuse the image with Milarepa’s virtual presence.

Zimmerman Family Collection, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey toward Enlightenment, VMFA, Richmond, April 20-August 14, 2019; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, January 17 – November 29, 2020

Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.