Dancing Ganesha Surrounded by Subsidiary Manifestations
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.This sketch served as a preliminary drawing for a thangka painting. It shows Ganesha in his wrathful manifestation, dancing and brandishing various tantric attributes in his twelve arms. He is accompanied by four subsidiary forms of Ganesha holding bowls of jewels, and lotus blossoms. Adopted from Hinduism into the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, this form of Ganesha was popular in Tibet and was transmitted to Mongolia in the seventeenth century by the great teacher Zanabazar (1635–1723) along with a host of other Vajrayana deities. This work was drawn by Tuvdun at the Erden Zuo monastery, a major Buddhist center in Mongolia.
Artwork Details
- Title: Dancing Ganesha Surrounded by Subsidiary Manifestations
- Artist: Tuvdun (Mongolian, active late 19th–early 20th century)
- Date: 18th–19th century
- Culture: Mongolia
- Medium: Ink on paper
- Dimensions: Drawing: 12 × 8 in. (30.5 × 20.3 cm)
Mat: 19 1/4 × 14 1/4 in. (48.9 × 36.2 cm) - Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Lent by Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art