This small but charming image almost certainly depicts the Indian adept, Padampa Sanggye, who traveled throughout Tibet in the eleventh century and likely died around 1117. Said to have been born to a Brahmin family in the southern part of India, Padampa Sanggye was educated in the various strands of Vajrayana Buddhism at the famous Vikramashila monastery in what is today the state of Bihar in Northeastern India. After attaining mastery in Vajrayana principles, Padampa Sanggye traveled to Tibet a number of times throughout his life, and ended his life in retreat at the Buddhist center of Wutaishan in China. Throughout his travels, he was regarded for his practical teachings using gestures, objects, and maxims to convey larger principles, and for his unusual acceptance of female disciples. In appearance, Padampa Sanggye was said to have worn little in the way of clothing, and had various epithets that referenced the dark color of his skin, which is often pronounced in painted depictions of him.
Representations of Padampa Sanggye in both sculpture and painting vary in the manner of depicting him: some show the siddha seated in a yogic position with his knees against his chest and supported by a yoga band, while others depict him mid-gesture, as in the present work. A bronze figure of Padampa Sanggye in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, illustrated _____ and on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 68480 shows him in the latter pose, with his pronounced ringlets of hair and with arm raised in salute. A bronze figure of a mahasiddha in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 2003.376), tentatively identified as Campaka but possibly depicting Padampa Sanggye, is cast with the figure in a similar gesture and seated on a square base in line with the present figure.