This lot portrays Amitayus, the bliss-body of the tathagata Amitabha. In Tibet, Amitayus is worshipped in a special ceremony for obtaining long life and is traditionally is depicted wearing ornaments and a crown, and holding the ambrosia vase from which spill the jewels of eternal life. In the present lot, Amitayus is seated cross-legged on a double lotus base with a beaded rim, with his hands folded in his lap and legs crossed in dhyanasana. He is dressed in a dhoti ornamented with incised foliate patterns, and a flowing ribbon gracefully embraces his forearms. He is lavishly adorned with necklaces and large pendant earrings that rest on his shoulders. His hair is styled in a high ushnisha. This high topknot is characteristic of sculptures produced in the Dolonnor style.
During the Qing period, the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong Emperors patronised Dolonnor as a centre of Buddhist learning and artistic production. The site was strategically built not far from Shangdu (Xanadu), the old thirteenth century summer capital of Kublai Khan. The Mongolian lama, master artist and leader of the Khalka Mongols, Zanabazar, formally assimilated his khanate into the Qing Empire before the Kangxi Emperor at Dolonnor in 1691. It continued to be an important bronze image foundry even into the late nineteenth century, as noted by the Russian explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky on one of his expeditions to Mongolia in the 1870s (Przhevalsky, Nikolay. Mongolia, London: 1876, p. 105).
A large statue of Tara, showcasing signature characteristics of Dolonnor style, is housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. no. 1911-98). Another large eighteenth-century Tara, also executed in the Dolonnor style, was sold at Christie’s New York on 20 March 2019, lot 674, for $112,500.