Naro Dakini (Primary Title)

Unknown (Artist)

18th century
Tibetan
bronze, gold leaf
Overall: 8 1/2 × 6 1/2 in. (21.59 × 16.51 cm)
99.160
Not on view

Naro Dakini is a form of the wrathful female buddha known as Vajrayogini. Glowing with yogic heat, her youthful, athletic body—an outward sign of her meditative perfection—is ornamented with garments of human bone and severed heads. Victoriously trampling demons, she brandishes the curved flaying knife-chopper and brings to her lips a blood-filled skull cup.

Gift of Mary Shepherd Slusser
Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey toward Enlightenment, VMFA, Richmond, April 20-August 14, 2019; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, January 17 – November 29, 2020

By December 1999, Dr. Mary Shepherd Slusser [1918 – 2017]; gifted to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), accessioned into VMFA collection in December 1999. [1]

[1] Accessioned December 16, 1999. Information in VMFA Curatorial and Registration files.
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

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