Achi Chökyi Drölma
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Chapel
Orientation 3
Display 5

ABS 262

 Code: ABS 262

  Country: Tibet (central)

  Style:

  Date: 1600 - 1700

  Dimensions in cm WxHxD: 7.5 x 8 x 3

  Materials: White marble

(Tibetan: A phyi chos kyi sgrol ma. English: Worldly Protector)

White marble (rather rare for Tibetan stone carving).

Depicts Achi Chokyi Drolma, Dharma Protector (Dharmapala) of the Drikung Kagyu school.
Achi Chokyi Drolma 
(Drigung Kagyu Tradition)

Achi Chokyi Drolma, born in the 11th century in Central Tibet, was always preoccupied with spiritual practice. Believing that great things would come from her offspring and future generations she sought out and married a good man. She had four sons each of whom became a great ascetic or scholar. As a great Tantric practitioner herself and a great teacher in her own right, in a large cave before her many students, she once conducted a sacramental feast transforming a human corpse into a sacred offering. At that time she vowed to be a protector of Buddhism and composed a liturgy for invoking herself as a protector deity. Upon completion of the verses, appearing on the back of a blue horse she flew into the air and departed for a distant Buddhist Pureland. Later, her great-grandson Jigten Sumgon (1143-1217), the founder of a large and influential tradition of Buddhism, Drigung Kagyu, also composed a liturgy for his famous great-grandmother and established her as a principal religious protector of the tradition.
Jeff Watt 5-2005 [updated 8-2018] - https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=3991

Bock, Etienne; Falcombello, Jean-Marc; Jenny Magali, 2022. Trésors du Tibet. Sur les pas de Milarépa. Paris: Flammarion. P. 194