Brass Figurine. God. "Jam-by-ang". "Jampai-yang" (God of Wisdom)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 4 Oct 1888
name: label: Donor Name
content: William W. Rockhill
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Sanscrit. - Man-jushri. Illus. in USNM AR, 1893; Pl. 43; page 742. The sword held in his right hand with firey flames is to cut off the root of ignorance. T. D. 12/74." From late 19th or early 20th century exhibit label with card: "Image of Jambyang - Of bronze, gilt. Seated on a lotus throne, holding in his right hand the sword of wisdom with a flaming point, to dissipate darkness among men, and a noose in his left. Behind his left arm is an open flower in which rests a book. Lhasa, Tibet. Collected by W. W. Rockhill. The name means "sweet singer," manjushri, of the Hindoos [sic, Hindus]. He is the god of wisdom and his chief sanctuary is at Wu-t'ai-shan, in the Chinese province of Shan-si." Briefly described in Report and Essays on the Tibetan Artifacts at the SI, Lobsang Lhalungpa, 1985. Lobsang Lhalungpa identifies this as an image of Manjusri, gilded bronze. Per Wen-shing Chou, 2009, figure has been, and still is, consecrated.
label: Notes
content: Provenience note: Ledger book and catalogue card list locality for this piece as Wutai Shan, China. However, old exhibit label with card, and Rockhill publication, list locality as Lhasa, Tibet. It is unclear from the records which location is where the piece was collected. It may actually have been made or collected in Lhasa, and perhaps the confusion was created by the fact that Rockhill indicates that the chief sanctuary for Manjusri is Wutai Shan?
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Lhasa / Mount Wutai (Wutai Shan), Shanxi Province (Shansi), Tibet / China, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 021261
label: USNM Number
content: E130396-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Figure