Shakyamuni Buddha, Earth-Touching
fromNPR 38,000
Six-Armed Mahakala
Oxidized copper, painted face, gilt detail
NPR 104,000
Quantity
KLM-MAHAKA-PF-09
Six arms, curved knife and skull cup at the heart, standing heavy on a lotus in a flame aureole. The great protector in the form most used in the Gelug and Kagyu traditions. Face painted, hair and flame tips picked out in gold, body left dark.
What to expect from this order
Cast by hand in a named workshop
Made by Oku Bahal Shilpa in the Kathmandu valley, and paid for directly. About the workshop
Dispatched in two working days
Tracked the whole way. Anything over 10 kg travels by freight on a booked slot. Shipping and delivery
Nothing charged now
Pay the courier on delivery, or by wallet or bank transfer once we have confirmed the piece. How paying works
14 days to change your mind
Return it within 14 days of delivery, in the condition it arrived in. Refund policy
The detail
Measurements, materials and how this one was made — the facts a photograph cannot carry.
- Deity
- Mahakala
- Finish
- Painted face
- Posture
- Standing
- Inlay
- None
- Material
- Copper
- Technique
- Lost-wax cast
- Origin district
- Lalitpur (Patan)
- Artisan
- Oku Bahal workshop, Patan
- 9 inch
- 10.5 × 8.7 × 22.9 cm, 3.6 kg
- 12 inch
- 14 × 11.6 × 30.5 cm, 8.2 kg
Protector figures are cast heavier than peaceful ones — thicker walls, more metal, a lower centre of gravity. Partly it is iconography and partly it is that a protector is meant to feel like it cannot be knocked over.
Cast by the lost-wax method the Newar workshops of Patan have used for roughly a thousand years. The artisan models the figure in wax, encases it in a clay and rice-husk mould, fires the mould so the wax runs out, and pours molten metal into the void that is left. The mould is broken to release the casting, so no two pieces from it can ever be identical. Chasing, filing and detailing the face are then done entirely by hand — the slowest part of the work, and the part that decides whether a statue is any good.
The face is hand-painted in gold and mineral pigment and is the most fragile part of the piece. Do not touch or wipe the face at all. Dust the body with a dry, soft cloth, always working away from the face. No water, no polish, no solvent. Keep out of direct sun, which fades the pigment, and away from damp.
In-stock pieces are dispatched within two working days and tracked all the way. Pieces over 10 kg travel by freight on a booked slot rather than by parcel carrier.
You can return it within 14 days of delivery, in the condition it arrived in. If you changed your mind you pay the return postage; if it was faulty or damaged in transit, we do. The refund policy sets out how, and the shipping policy covers costs and timings.
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