Mahasiddha Virupa
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Orientation 2
Display 1

ABS 027

 Code: ABS 027

  Country: Tibet (central)

  Style:

  Date: 1350 - 1450

  Dimensions in cm WxHxD: 10.3 x 15 x 8.3

  Materials: Copper with gilt

Mahasiddha Virupa

Almost naked and corpulent, Mahasiddha Virupa is seated in the royal ease posture on a double lotus pedestal covered with an antelope skin. Leaning on his right hand, he brandishes the left, displaying the threatening gesture. Represented as an Indian yogi, wearing only a loincloth, he is adorned with the bone ornaments of the charnel ground, a discrete garland of flowers on his head.

This posture refers to a famous episode of his life where, using his supernatural powers, he stopped the sun to delay the payment of his drinks in a tavern. A major religious figure of 9th century India, Virupa is especially worshipped in Tibet as the ancestor of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism and the initiator of the Lamdre teachings, the “Path and Fruit.”

Mahasiddhaor “great accomplished ones” are yogic masters of India and Tibet endowed with psychic abilities and spiritual powers, and leading unconventional lifestyle. The tradition attributes to them the tantras, the founding literature of Vajrayana, the esoteric form of Buddhism.