Wooden Bodhisattvas of the Himalayas: A Primer on Early Carvings
During 1970-1995, Dr. Pal led the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Department of Indian and Islamic Art, eventually retiring. Raised in Kolkata, he obtained his Ph.D. from Cambridge. The academic community acknowledges him as a "pioneering indigenous scholar and significant promoter of Himalayan art," making him a central figure in the study of South Asian and Himalayan art.
Officially published on the Asian Art website in February 2023, the article underwent multiple revisions and checks of the relevant collections. Dr. Pal's research assistant, Ms. Caroline Friedman, agreed to its Chinese translation, and the asterisk (*) marks the images in the original piece. Over his extensive research career, Dr. Pal authored nearly eighty works on Asian art and exhibitions on specific themes, and he also served as editor-in-chief of Marg magazine, one of South Asia's foremost art journals.
Because the translation is long, it will be published in two parts. The translator, it should be noted, will provide appropriate explanations and supplementary information for the original text's images and will title the article "Such is my view.
Ratnakīrti (रत्नकीर्ति; Buddhist philosopher) has disputed dates of birth and death in academia, with two prevailing theories placing him in either the seventh century or the eleventh century. The front-view image of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Statue, dated to approximately the 6th century and standing 85cm tall, was crafted by Newar artisans and is held in the private collection of Roncoroni. In this depiction, he appears as the omnipotent savior, extending a lotus hand with merciful grace, from which nectar drips to comfort the lonely spirits of the departed. His glorious face is bathed in moonlight, and his tender gaze conveys deep compassion.
Who is the inspiration behind Ratnakīrti's lyrically and spiritually powerful verses and the visually captivating wooden Buddha statue at the text's beginning? This question arises as we admire them. The material is what determines the strong aesthetic appeal of wooden sculptures, because stone or metal works can hardly give people the same enduring tranquility and warmth.
Within the borders of the kingdom of Nepal, wood has long been regarded as a key material for artistic and architectural expression in the Himalayan region. The earliest recorded use of wood by the kingdom to construct palaces and temples appears in Chinese texts dating to the Tang dynasty. During the reign of King Narendra Dev (645-685) of the Licchavi dynasty (approximately 350-850), the Tang envoy Wang Xuanze directly observed the area’s distinctive wooden architecture.
Literature offers artistic details indicating that sculptors in the region were prone to setting lesser gems into metal sculptures—a practice that enthusiastic Tibetan craftsmen later revered and imitated. Meanwhile, Wang Xuanze described wooden buildings whose walls were decorated with fine carvings and paintings, and the people there carved images of gods in wood and worshipped them.
Fortunately, the wooden reliefs from the Jokhang Temple—now well recognized in academic circles—have made it through the violent changes and cultural disruptions of the past century in Tibet. Even today, wooden sculptures carved by local artisans during the Licchavi dynasty are hardly to be found in the Kathmandu Valley, while any surviving works in that same style are permanently housed in Lhasa, the capital of the Tubo period.
The wood carving skills of Nepalese artists can now be traced back to the Licchavi period (roughly 200–879 AD, according to tribal development history) thanks to modern science. Image 1 shows wooden relief carvings from the Jokhang Temple, dating to around the mid-7th century. Image 2 depicts a "Bodhisattva Statue" from the late 7th century, standing 65cm tall, held in the Oriental Art Museum of Turin, Italy. Image 3 features the "Statue of Vajrapani Bodhisattva," also from the late 7th century, 75cm in height, part of the Pritzker Private Collection. The cover of "Rediscovering Ancient Woodcarvings of Nepal," written by Mary Slusser and published in 2010, is also referenced.
Thanks to carbon-14 dating, we were able to trace these works back to the Licchavi period (Figures 2 and 3). In a recent significant publication, the late Mary Slusser (1918-2017) recorded the findings from scientific tests performed on numerous Nepalese wooden sculptures, whose age turned out to be surprisingly ancient. Besides the wooden pillars from central Kathmandu, Slusser also identified at least two Western private collections.
Figures 1 and 4 to 6 show a recently identified third private collection that matches the criteria, whose oldest and most striking artwork is this Avalokiteshvara statue. Jean Daridan (1906-2002) originally bought the statue in 1967; he served as the French Ambassador to India from 1965 to 1970 and to Nepal from 1965 to 1967. In June 2008, the statue was acquired by Chino Roncoroni at an Asian art auction at Christie's in Paris, and it now forms part of his collection.
Just like the two wooden sculptures featured in the publication, the piece owned by Chino Roncoroni depicts a Bodhisattva in a general form. Nevertheless, points of comparison emerge when it is set alongside several stone Bodhisattva statues from the Licchavi period preserved in the Kathmandu Valley. Even though the figure's identity cannot be determined at once, it remains clear that Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva stands as the most frequent subject of such carvings.
In the following text, I will examine several distinctive and thought-provoking iconographic aspects of the Bodhisattva statue depicted in Figure 1. Notably, among the stone statues, only the one at Gana Bahal (the city's central district) retains a complete inscription that assists in establishing its date.
In the private Roncoroni collection, three wooden sculptures of Guanyin Bodhisattva have all been subjected to Carbon-14 dating, placing their creation between 430 and 650 AD. These pieces, each 85cm in height, were produced by Neapolitan artisans. Image 4 captures the right side, Image 5 the left side, and Image 6 the back view of the statue.
The second image yields a date range of AD 531–672 (97.5%), and the third one a range of AD 550–650 (95%). For the Bodhisattva statue in the first image, test A gives AD 530–640 (68.2%) and test B gives AD 430–650 (95.4%), with both tests carried out by the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Accordingly, the statue in the first image could be even more ancient. As stated below, conclusions drawn from art-historical study also confirm the soundness of these figures.
The date of Nepal’s wooden sculpture tradition is thus moved back to the sixth century AD. These three pieces are the oldest surviving wooden Buddhist carvings in South Asia, and they may have been used in particular temple rituals. Outside Nepal and Tibet, no comparable ancient wooden carvings have been found in the tropical regions of South and Southeast Asia, with Japan being the only exception. The Kathmandu Valley’s climate is less favorable for wood preservation than that of Tibet.
When examined closely from the left and right, it is clear that the left arm of Longcoloni's statue is in a better state of preservation. Among the three Bodhisattva statues, the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva statue held by Chino Longcoloni is, according to comparative analysis, undoubtedly the best preserved. Its arms are intact, and the distinctive crown design serves to accurately identify its identity. Extending toward the ground, the right hand makes a giving gesture, resembling the wooden sculptures of the other two damaged statues.
Notably, in contrast to the other two Bodhisattva statues, the left hand of Pritzker's Bodhisattva statue is held slightly away from the body, and it does not touch the skirt belt. Furthermore, there is no indication that any of the three Bodhisattva statues carried lotus stems like the stone statue shown in Figure 7. Rather, it is conceivable that the left arm of Pritzker's statue originally held a vajra, a characteristic shared with the stone statue in Image 8 and the bronze sculpture from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Image 9.
Pritzker's statue is stylistically distinct from those of Longcoloni and Turin, which closely resemble one another. Preserved with plaster and paint, its surface reveals more defined physical traits and a wider range of ornaments, along with a skirt belt that runs in a different direction.
It should be noted that a lion’s face or glory face (kirtimukha) carved on a deity’s crown appears more frequently in depictions of Vishnu than in Buddhist Bodhisattvas. As for Pritzker’s statue, its crown follows traditional conventions, featuring three oval crown peaks. In contrast to the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva statue in Image 7, none of the three wooden sculptures display a sacred cord (upavita) hanging from the left shoulder, a feature typically found in representations of Vajrapani and certain other examples.
In 467, the Chalukya ruler Mana Deva (मानदेव; 464-505) had the "Supreme Lord Vishnu Stele" (विष्णुविक्रान्त) erected. That stele contains two classic sculptures whose crowns, despite surface damage, still show three peaks. Moreover, the red sash on Pritzker's statue—with tassels hanging close to the hip—is typical of Vishnu imagery.
Photo 8, taken by Sameer Tuladhar, shows the "Stone Statue of Vajrapani Bodhisattva", which stands 47.5 cm tall and dates to the 7th century AD, located in Kathmandu's Dhvaka Baha area; it is an early image of the Seven Stone Statues (1974). Image 7, also photographed by Tuladhar, is the "Statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva", a 6th-century AD work measuring 52 cm in height, situated in the Gana Bahal area of Kathmandu, and likewise serves as an early image of the Seven Stone Statues (1974).
In the Vajrapani bodhisattva statue housed in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a distinctive variation appears: its crown has a single peak that turns increasingly slender—just like the crown of the wooden bodhisattva statue in Turin, though the Vajrapani version is more pointed. This feature is also visible in figure nine, which depicts the "Bronze Bodhisattva with Golden Hands," an artwork from the 7th century AD standing 13.2cm tall, showing clear traces of gilding and held in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The earliest appearance of this crown type may have been on the head of Kaliya (कालिय), the snake king subdued by the god Krishna during his childhood. It would later become a standard feature of Nepalese "mandala images." Some images in Kathmandu's Hanuman Dhoka Palace (हनुमानढोका) still retain this dramatic classical theme, which is a hallmark of South Asian art.
During the Gupta dynasty in India, meditating Buddhas were commonly carved onto the crowns of bodhisattva statues (see figure seven); however, the crown in figure one instead displays an unusual standing Buddha. That crown, belonging to the bodhisattva statue in the Loncoli collection, likewise has three peaks, but the two side peaks are triangular, and the inner side of the central peak forms a niche-like structure, analogous to statues from early Indian or Afghan cave temples.
Among further early Guanyin statues is a replica of Avalokiteshvara, concealed by Longkoloni, that was discovered in 2019 at the relatively obscure Kuleshvar Mahadev Temple in the Kathmandu Valley. Scholars Gautam Vajracharya (1940-) and Ulrich von Schroeder (1943-) have examined the statue; Vajracharya dates it to the 6th century, while von Schroeder suggests a 5th–6th century origin without explaining the basis for his dating.
Despite not having visited the site to inspect the artifact personally, the author can still offer observations from photographic evidence (see image ten). In contrast to the Avalokiteshvara statue hidden by Longkoloni, the replica statue's right arm is flush against its torso, and the hand is sculpted with less refinement. The left hand of the replica statue, unlike other works from the same era, holds a longer lotus stem. Curiously, the wrists of the replica statue carry no bracelets, yet armlets are present on both arms, a rarity among other sculptures.
Unlike the Avalokiteshvara statue concealed by Longkoloni, the replica stands out chiefly for its crown ornamentation, whose complex design features a single peak shaped like the numeral nine. Beyond this shared element, however, the patterns adorning the replica's crown display far greater intricacy than those of the hidden statue.
On the replica statue, the crown's central sides are decorated with gems and detailed floral ornamentation, which hints that its maker had a strong interest in portraying verdant landscapes. In the wooden statue's crown, the figure is seemingly concealed inside a cave, whereas the figure atop the stone statue appears to stand beneath a tree, with the tree extending upward along the figure’s left side. The hair streaming down behind the statue’s ears is also unlike the hairstyle on the main body of the wooden statue.
Photographed by Sameer Tuladhar, Image 10 features the 'Statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva' (52 cm high, 6th century AD), showing facial details. The Newari craftsmen’s works are reminiscent of the fifth-century Deer Park School sculptures: while the Deer Park figures appear closer to practitioners, the Newari sculptures combine characteristics of both practitioners and secular rulers.
At the Deer Park Museum, a stone carving (image twelve) depicts the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with the hair styled as that of a practitioner and no Buddha figure on the crown, while a pearl necklace adorns the neck. The Bodhisattva stands on the Buddha's right shoulder in the manner of a celestial being, holding a lotus stem in the left hand; the right hand, now damaged, likely once formed a gesture of reverence toward the Buddha.
Both Bodhisattvas stand on a fully opened lotus, its stem growing from the Buddha’s body. Notably, neither wears a crown bearing an image of a seated or standing Buddha. On the Buddha’s left shoulder is Maitreya, who serves a comparable role for the missing right arm.
Preserved at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, India, is another noteworthy Bodhisattva sculpture. This stone statue, image eleven, represents the ideal model that Nepalese Bodhisattva statues drew upon, albeit with several modifications. Meanwhile, a stone carving of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara holding a lotus stem resembles the image-seven statue in an unusual way. That image-seven statue, which most scholars date to the sixth century, likewise has no Buddha standing in its crown.
The Bodhisattva’s practitioner-like hairstyle remains the statue’s most striking feature, with some hair resembling sausage curls and a small amount resting elegantly on the shoulders. Rather than wearing a crown, the stone statue’s head bears a meditating seated Buddha, who has a halo behind him and sits on an intricate throne covered by a blanket, while the throne’s back is adorned with vines or snake heads. Simple snake-shaped armlets also decorate the statue.
Image 11: A stone statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva, dated approximately 475-500 AD, with a height of 98 cm, housed in the Indian Museum in Kolkata. Image 12: Buddha and Two Bodhisattvas, dating to around 475-500 AD, 65 cm high, held in the Rokusho-an Museum collection. The latter image offers a close-up of Guanyin Bodhisattva. In my view, these two representations are the source of the coiffure seen on the Avalokiteshvara statue at Longkolo Temple and the Holy Avalokiteshvara statue in the Potala Palace.
This Bodhisattva, shown in Figure Ten, presents an austere ascetic image, without any courtly adornments or pearl necklaces. Its creation has been dated and located by the author of a 2020 publication on private collections, which also features the sculpture, to a workshop near the Lumbini Gardens during the Gupta Dynasty. The piece was formerly owned by the Longo-Coloni family.
The seated figure appears more three-dimensional and skeletal in form, as no hairstyle is visible from the front. In place of a lotus stalk, the hands remain empty, while the Bodhisattva’s left and right hands assume the gestures of fearlessness and giving. These gestures recall the graceful stone sculptures of Lumbini, yet they display a stronger sense of plasticity. The figure also wears a sacred thread and belt, items typically reserved for Brahmins, with the belt’s folds flowing down in an elegant manner.
The identity of the Bodhisattva is clearly confirmed by the image of Amitabha Buddha atop his head, even though his hands do not hold a lotus stalk. When the wooden sculpture in the Longo-Coloni collection is compared with the stone statue shown in image Ten, a distinctive fluidity emerges that is characteristic of the early Buddhist portrait tradition. This flow is reflected in the crown's design and arrangement, the armlets and bracelets on the stone figure, and the manner in which the lotus stalk is employed—all elements that differ from the wooden sculpture, which lacks such variations.
In India or Nepal, there is no visual early textual evidence. Nevertheless, later texts such as "The Garland of Buddhist Practices" (साधनमाला) record these features, with the usual alterations in imagery and style.
It is worth noting that outside the Indian subcontinent and the Buddhist world, no statues of Avalokitesvara bearing a standing Buddha's crown have been discovered. Image 13, titled "Metal Statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva," dates to the 6th century AD, measures 32cm in height, and belongs to the Solomon family. Image 14, "Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in Metal," dates to the late 9th century AD, stands 23.5cm tall, and is held in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum.
It is only from the two sculptures above (Figure 1 and Figure 10), together with two further possible bodhisattva statues produced by Newari craftsmen during the Licchavi period, that we can infer that a standing Buddha may appear in the crown of an Avalokitesvara statue. The latter two statues are the sacred Avalokitesvara statue preserved in the Potala Palace and the bronze Avalokitesvara statue held in the Worcester Art Museum, with the bronze piece possibly dating to the late 9th century.
Possibly the only Buddhist sculpture by early Newari craftsmen to show a standing Buddha, the Avalokitesvara statue at the Worcester Art Museum has a sacred coil formed by the waistband around its thighs. The sacred cord seen in Figure 13 is absent from the sacred Avalokitesvara statue in the Potala Palace, though it appears often in sculptures from the Lumbini Garden area. During the Khasa Malla period, the bodhisattva may have been linked to Brahmins.
Compassion's light fills the three thousand worlds. Nonetheless, the folds of the Avalokitesvara statue at the Worcester Art Museum show a clear Newari style, and the lack of a lotus stem continues the characteristics of the Avalokitesvara statue in the Longkolo and the Tibetan Avalokitesvara statues. This article has been translated from Sorang Wangqing's blog.