id: 148021 accession number: 1975.101 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1975.101 updated: 2021-03-27 12:15:47.034000 Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara), around 1000. Western Himalayas. Gilt bronze with silver and copper inlay; overall: 39.4 x 14 x 7.6 cm (15 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 3 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1975.101 title: Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: around 1000 creation date earliest: 975 creation date latest: 1025 current location: 237 Himalayan creditline: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund copyright: --- culture: Western Himalayas technique: gilt bronze with silver and copper inlay department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Tibetan Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 39.4 x 14 x 7.6 cm (15 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 3 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Images of the Mind opening date: 1987-07-07T04:00:00 Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987). title: Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet opening date: 1996-05-01T00:00:00 Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (May 1-August 31, 1996); Fundació "la Caixa" (October 1, 1996-January 12, 1997). title: Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet opening date: 1998-01-16T00:00:00 Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei (January 16-May 1, 1998). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (J. E. Eskenazi, Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1975 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1975- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: One of the finest surviving examples of its kind, this rare six-armed form of Avalokiteshvara has the slender athletic figure and penetrating expression associated with the art of Kashmir, the main source for western Tibetan styles. This Bodhisattva combines the qualities of a prince and an ascetic, with his crown and jewels combined with the yogi's antelope skin over his left shoulder and prayer beads in his middle right hand. Representing the range of Avalokiteshvara's forms and aspects, his eleven heads are remarkably articulated with individualized features. They follow textual descriptions that describe his three placid faces, three fierce faces, three terrifying howling faces, and one laughing face, all surmounted by a head of the Buddha Amitabha, with whom he is closely associated. Tongues and lips have been inlaid with copper to extraordinary effect, and a miniature seated figure of Amitabha Buddha has been placed in the center of every crown. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Christian Luczanits in Linrothe, Robert, Christian Luczanits, and Melissa R. Kerin. 2014. Collecting paradise: Buddhist art of Kashmir and its legacies : [exhibition, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, January, 13 - April 19, 2015 ; Rubin Museum of Art, New York, May 22, 2015 - October 19, 2015]. New York (N.Y.): Rubin Museum of Art. pp. 110-111. page number: url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 293 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n313 Klimburg-Salter, Deborah E., and Maximilian Klimburg. The Silk Route and the Diamond Path: Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes. Los Angeles, Calif: Published under the sponsorship of the UCLA Art Council, 1982. page number: Reproduced: p. 105, pl. 32 url: "1992 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95. page number: Mentioned: p. 247 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161418 Rhie, Marylin M., Robert A. F. Thurman, and John Bigelow Taylor. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. New York: Tibet House New York in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1996. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 127, pp. 322-323 url: Kerin, Melissa R. and Rob Linrothe. "Recollecting Kashmir: Cleveland's Eleven-headed, Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara." Orientations 46, no 1 (January/February 2015): 68-76. page number: Reproduced: p. 71, fig. 2 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1975.101/1975.101_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1975.101/1975.101_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1975.101/1975.101_full.tif