Kashmir, a fertile valley nestled between the highest ranges of the Himalayan mountains, was a revered land of Buddhist learning, arts, and culture from the eighth to the thirteenth century.
Kashmir, a fertile valley nestled between the highest ranges of the Himalayan mountains, was a revered land of Buddhist learning, arts, and culture from the eighth to the thirteenth century.
Kashmiri art was one of the main sources of art in the Western Himalayan kingdoms, which includes areas in present-day northern India—Ladakh, Zangskar, Spiti, Lahaul, and Kinnaur—and the province of western Tibet known as Ngari. Kashmir was a significant destination on trade routes that traversed the neighboring Western Himalayas and connected Western and Central Asia. Until the fourteenth century Kashmir was an important center of Esoteric or Tantric Buddhism, which took root in Tibet. Many of the conventions for depicting the deities of Tantric Buddhism were transmitted from Kashmir. The neighboring areas of Swat and Gilgit, often referred to as the Greater Kashmir region, also share characteristics of Kashmiri art.
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Gilgit (present day Pakistan)
Early 7th century
This large lion throne likely once supported the image of a seated buddha. Based on inscriptions on a group of bronzes like the one seen here, scholars have established a chronology of the royal house that ruled the area from the late sixth to the eighth century. This object’s inscription, located on a textile hanging between the lions, indicates that the principal donor was a queen of the Patola Shahis in the area of Gilgit in northern Pakistan, and it is one of the earliest Palola Shahi bronzes known to exist. Many of these bronzes eventually made their way to Tibet where they were influential.
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