id:			143777
accession number:	1968.214
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1968.214
updated:		2023-08-23 22:09:47.684000

Portable Shrine, c. 1500. Tibet. Wood with mineral pigments; diameter: 16.2 cm (6 3/8 in.); overall: 25.4 cm (10 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1968.214

title:				Portable Shrine
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1500
creation date earliest:		1495
creation date latest:		1505
current location:		
creditline:			Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	Tibet
technique:	wood with mineral pigments
department:	Indian and Southeast Asian Art
collection:	Tibetan Art
type:		Sculpture
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Diameter: 16.2 cm (6 3/8 in.); Overall: 25.4 cm (10 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Year in Review: 1968
	opening date:   1969-01-29T05:00:00
	<i>Year in Review: 1968</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).

	title:		Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art
	opening date:   2013-05-05T00:00:00
	<i>Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 5-September 15, 2013).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	(Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France, Collection G... Œuvres d'art et de haute curiosité du Tibet sale, lot no. 791)
	date: November 21–24, 1904
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	(Eduard Lingero, Belgium, sold to Claude De Marteau)
	date: 1940s?–1961
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	(Claude De Marteau [d. 2017], Brussels, Belgium, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
	date: 1961–1968
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 1968–
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:


digital description:


wall description:
This portable shrine was made from a solid log carved inside and out. Tantric practice can be performed alone in any location; this shrine could be used by a traveling practitioner for meditation, visualization, prayer, and recitation of mantras. The interior is filled with rows of tantric forms of enlightened beings and guardians sculpted in high relief. The central figure of the top row is Padmasambhava (Indian, active in Tibet in the 740s), a tantric yogi and Buddhist saint from a region in present-day northeastern Pakistan. He was instrumental in transmitting tantric teachings to Tibet, and he is venerated as the founder of one of the four main Tibetan monastic orders. The exterior has finely incised imagery of wrathful protectors and a stupa (chorten in Tibetan), a sacred Buddhist monument in the form of a solid hemispherical dome topped by rows of stylized umbrellas. Also carved on the shrine’s exterior are mantras written in Tibetan script, including the most fundamental mantra, om mani padme hum, which is recited specifically to focus the mind and rally the power of compassion.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Deniker, Joseph and Deshayes, Émile. <em>Catalogue de la première partie des œuvres d'art et de haute curiosité du Tibet: collection G...</em>. Paris: Moreau, 1904.
	page number: 	Mentioned and Reproduced: lot no. 791, pp. 219–220
	url:		https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6540105x

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1968.214/1968.214_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1968.214/1968.214_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1968.214/1968.214_full.tif