A TIGER MEDITATION RUG, TIBET, 19TH TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY

拍品描述

A TIGER MEDITATION RUG, TIBET, 19TH TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY Hand-knotted and woven in wool, boldly depicting a flayed tiger skin spread vertically across a deep indigo-blue ground, the golden-yellow pelt articulated with strongly stylized stripes. The fierce head is placed at the lower register, with bulging eyes, bared teeth, and clawed forepaws extending to either side, while the elongated body rises above in broad symmetrical bands and terminates in the hindquarters and curling tail. Dimensions: Size 138.5 x 82.5 cm Tibetan tantric rugs such as the present lot served as seats of power for practitioners of Esoteric Buddhism. Their imagery, here taking the form of a flayed tiger skin, carried potent ritual significance. Used together with ritual implements, such rugs played a role in various tantric practices, including meditation. The tradition has deep roots in India, where holy men of different religious traditions meditated and preached while seated upon tiger skins. In Tibet, tiger-skin rugs came to be associated particularly with rites invoking protective deities and were also a notable feature of the annual New Year’s Eve exorcism dance (Tse Gutor, rtse dgu gtor), performed to expel the accumulated evils and impurities of the departing year. Literature comparison: Compare a closely related tiger rug, dated to the late 19th-early 20th century, size 152.4 x 90.2 cm, in the Newark Museum of Art, object number 78.137. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Bonhams New York, 19 March 2012, lot 1123 Price: USD 6,875 or approx. EUR 8,600 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related depiction of the tiger. Note the size (165.1 x 106.7 cm).

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