Naro Dakini

Object Details

• Description

  This sculpture depicts Naro Dakini, a ferocious Tibetan Buddhist deity. Wearing a garland of skulls and a skirt of bones, she bends her torso gracefully to one side, raising a bloody skull cup high above her head.

• Label

  Both beautiful and terrifying, dakinis are generally demigoddesses. Because this dakini has a crown and a staff decorated with skulls, she may be Vajrayogini, a goddess Tibetan Buddhists consider to be a particularly wise and powerful emanation of the Buddha. Surrounded by a fiery mandorla, she wields a flaying knife to cut through ignorance. Her energetic diagonal posture, fierce expression, and the bloody contents of her skull cup further emphasize her ferocious power. The diagonal thrust of her lunging posture signals that dakinis are known to fly through the sky. Her face was originally painted in the cold-gold technique; its damaged condition reveals that the sculpture was once in a fire.

  There are sublime truths behind the ferocity of the dakini. Tibetan Buddhists consider her to be a particularly powerful emanation of the Buddha. Naro Dakini’s flaming mandorla and the vertical third eye above her knitted brow conveys her enlightened wisdom. She revels in the imagery of death so that her devotees might overcome their fear of it. Naro Dakini teaches that the true nature of existence lies beyond the impermanent states of life and death. Her sharp, flaying blade cuts through all ignorance.

  This sculpture is one of a group of artworks in The Alice S. Kandell Collection that clearly reflects the innovative eighteenth-century style of Central Tibet during the time of the Seventh Dalai Lama (1708-57). Combining earlier Tibetan and Chinese visual modes, sculptors created rhythmic, playful, yet sophisticated lines to lend the figures a feeling of both dynamic activity and lightness of form. Together with an impeccable attention to detail, including separately-cast gold and silver elements inlaid with turquoise, their knowledge of the icon imbues each altarpiece with a sense of perfected ease and blissful transcendence.

• Provenance

  ?-before 1959

  Tsarong Dasang Damdul (1888-1959), method of acquisition unknown [1]

  After 1959-early 1960s

  Tsarong Dundul Namgyal (aka George Tsarong) (1920-2011), acquired from Tsarong Dasang Damdul [2]

  Early 1960s-ca. 1964-1973

  Albert Rudolph (1928-1973), Rudi Oriental Arts, New York, NY, purchased from Tsarong Dundul Namgyal (aka George Tsarong) [3]

  ca. 1964-1973-1990s

  Philip Rudko, purchased from Rudi Oriental Arts, through Albert Rudolph, in New York, NY [4]

  1990s-2013

  Alice S. Kandell, acquired from Philip Rudko [5]

  From 2013

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Alice S. Kandell [6]

  Notes:

  [1] This object came from the home shrine of Tsarong Dasang Damdul. He sent his collection out of Tibet shortly before 1959. Philip Rudko acquired the object from Rudi Oriental Arts when he was a student at Rutgers University. Rudko subsequently sold it to Alice S. Kandell in the 1990s. See “Collection A -- Shapa Tsaraong [sic Shappe Tsarong]” in the provenance notes titled “Alice Kandell Exhibition (March 2010) Provenance Draft Notes July 19, 2009” dated July 19, 2009-March 2010, copy in object file.

  Tsarong Dasang Damdul (1888-1959) was the Commander-in-Chief of the Tibetan Army and the head of the Tibetan mint. Born in Penyul, north of Lhasa, Tsarong rose to become an important aide to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso (1876-1933) and he played an important role in modernizing Tibet. In 1913, Tsarong married his second wife, Pema Dolkar (1892-1957), who was from the aristocratic Tsarong family in Lhasa. The Dalai Lama subsequently ennobled him as the heir to the aristocratic estates of the Tsarong family. Following a revolt in Lhasa in March of 1959, Tsarong was arrested by the Chinese Army and he died in May of 1959 while imprisoned.

  [2] See note 1.

  Tsarong Dundul Namgyal, also known as George Tsarong, was a member of the aristocratic Tsarong family in Lhasa and the son of the military and government official Tsarong Dasang Damdul (1888-1959) and his second wife, Tsarong Pema Dolkar (1892-1957). Dundul Namgyal served as a treasury department official for the Tibetan government and is regarded as an important Tibetan photographer. Dundul Namgyal married Yangchen Dolkar

  (b. 1927), who was from the aristocratic Ragashar family, and together they had five children. In the late 1950s, Dundul Namgyal and his family resettled in India where Dundul Namgyal continued to serve the Tibetan government in exile. In the 1970s, Dundul Namgyal resettled for a time in the United States, first in Texas and later Maryland. He spent his later years in Kalimpong and Dehradun in northern India and died in Dehradum, India in 2011.

  [3] See note 1.

  Albert Rudolph, known also as Swami Rudrananda (Rudi) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a disciple of Bhagawan Nityananda (1897-1961), whom he met in India in 1958 or 1960. In 1966 another disciple of Nityananda, Swami Muktananda (1908-1982) initiated him into the Saraswati Order of monks, making him one of the first Americans to be recognized as a Swami or master in this tradition. Rudi began collecting Asian art objects before he turned twenty. Rudi opened his business, Rudi Oriental Arts, at 180 7th Avenue South, with just a few hundred dollars and some of the sculptures he had collected in the late 1950s. Rudi died in February 1973.

  [4] See note 1.

  Philip Rudko, born just outside New York City in northern New Jersey, is a Russian Orthodox priest and art conservator, specializing in Tibetan objects. He works with the collector Alice S. Kandell as the curator of her personal collection.

  [5] See note 1.

  Alice S. Kandell is a private collector, who for decades acquired hundreds of bronze sculptures, thangkas, textile banners, painted furniture and ritual implements. Her interest in Tibetan art and culture began during her college years, when she took the first of many trips to Sikkim, Tibet and Ladakh. Throughout her career as a child psychologist in New York, she continued to pursue her love of Tibetan Buddhist sacred art, traveling, collecting and documenting the art and culture of the region in two books of photography, “Sikkim: The Hidden Kingdom” (Doubleday) and “Mountaintop Kingdom: Sikkim” (Norton).

  [6] See Arthur M. Sackler “Deed of Gift,” dated December 26, 2013, copy in object file. See also “Deed of Gift” and “Pledge Agreement,” copy in object folder for 2011 gift.

  Research updated May 17, 2023

• Collection

  Arthur M. Sackler Collection

• Exhibition History

  The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room (March 12, 2022 - ongoing)

  Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia (October 14, 2017 to February 6, 2022)

  Doorway to an Enlightened World: The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kandell Collection (March 19 to November 27, 2016)

  The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kandell Collection (March 13, 2010 to November 27, 2016)

  Sculpture of South Asia and the Himalayas (May 4, 1988 to July 9, 2017)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Tsarong Dasang Damdul (1888-1959)

  Tsarong Dundul Namgyal (1920-2011)

  Rudi Oriental Arts (active late 1950s-1973)

  Philip J. Rudko

  Alice S. Kandell

• Origin

  Central Tibet

• Credit Line

  The Alice S. Kandell Collection

• Type

  Sculpture

• On View

  Sackler Gallery 26a: The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1740s, 1760s

• Name

  Rudi Oriental Arts, Kandell, Alice S., Rudko, Philip J., Tsarong, Dasang Damdul, Tsarong, Dundul Namgyal

• Place

  Tibet

• Topic

  Gilding, South Asian and Himalayan Art, Repoussé, Art, Inlay (process), Sculpture, Dakini, Alice S. Kandell Collection, Metal-work

• Culture

  Buddhists, Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Sculpture

• On View

  Yes